"Which is more important: a full stomach or equal protection under the law? Most people would hesitate to answer. It’s a false choice that ignores the interdependence of economic and civil rights, which proposes that the hungry will be nourished by law and order, while the well-fed are fortified against dysfunctional courts.
This May 2003, the Asian Legal Resource Centre announced the launch of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on the Right to Food and the Rule of Law in Asia. The Tribunal comes at a time when many governments still assert that economic and social rights can be addressed separately from civil and political rights. In fact, no rights are guaranteed without effective laws to secure them and ensure redress for victims. Without equitable and enforceable laws, the product of a farmer’s plough is no more secure than the product of a journalist’s pen... Read more..." This page also contains specific reports on violations of the right to food in Burma.

"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.
The broad aim of the Thematic Group on Food Security and Agriculture in Myanmar (TGFSA) will be to intensify efforts towards achieving MDG 1 and the World Summit Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015.
The aim of the Delta Livelihoods Working Group is to create a forum for discussion on livelihoods issues and facilitate the formulation of complementary Cyclone Nargis Recovery Programmes in order to support and ensure livelihoods of people in the Delta are restored and improved."

"The world has witnessed significant, exciting and sudden political changes in Myanmar over the past couple years. The country is at a critical phase in its social and economic transformation, and there is enormous opportunity for development economic growth.
CGSD is building a Sustainable Development Program to provide policy support for the government, local NGOs and the donor community, accelerating growth that is both socially inclusive, sustainable and mindful of climate risks and opportunities..."

Established in 2002 the FSWG has provided an effective forum for the networking, capacity building & knowledge sharing for organizations and individuals interested in working on food security and livelihood related issues...ONLINE PUBLICATIONS ON FOOD SECURITY IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES OF BURMA

Continuing concerns from previous Updates: Paddy harvest Ayeyarwady, Kayin and Bago: Local and regional rice prices are still being monitored after significant flooding severely affected 126,000 acres of paddy land and completely destroyed 55,000 acres. While the success of the harvest could be mitigated to an extent by post-flood seed distributions (for replanting), the harvest this year will likely be lower than normal in these areas, potentially impacting prices and rice exports..... Sesame, pigeon pea and groundnut harvest - Dry Zone: Harvests are being monitored after drought-like conditions damaged crops in August, leading to as much as a 25% reduction in yield. While replanting was possible, the success of this replanting may have been impacted by another dry spell in September (as pointed out above). Prices of groundnut oil and sesame oil are also being monitored as prices in August were reportedly 70% higher than normal.

Executive Summary: "This report reveals that the health of populations in conflict-affected areas of eastern Burma, particularly women and children, is amongst the worst in the world, a result of official disinvestment in health, protracted conflict and the abuse of civilians..."Diagnosis: Critical" demonstrates that a vast area of
eastern Burma remains in a chronic health
emergency, a continuing legacy of longstanding
official disinvestment in health, coupled with
protracted civil war and the abuse of civilians. This
has left ethnic rural populations in the east with
41.2% of children under five acutely malnourished.
60.0% of deaths in children under the age of 5 are
from preventable and treatable diseases, including
acute respiratory infection, malaria, and diarrhea.
These losses of life would be even greater if it were
not for local community-based health organizations,
which provide the only available preventive and
curative care in these conflict-affected areas.
The report summarizes the results of a large scale
population-based health and human rights survey
which covered 21 townships and 5,754 households
in conflict-affected zones of eastern Burma. The
survey was jointly conducted by the Burma Medical
Association, National Health and Education
Committee, Back Pack Health Worker Team and
ethnic health organizations serving the Karen,
Karenni, Mon, Shan, and Palaung communities.
These areas have been burdened by decades of civil
conflict and attendant human rights abuses against
the indigenous populations.
Eastern Burma demographics are characterized by
high birth rates, high death rates and the significant
absence of men under the age of 45, patterns more
comparable to recent war zones such as Sierra
Leone than to Burma’s national demographics.
Health indicators for these communities, particularly
for women and children, are worse than Burma’s
official national figures, which are already amongst
the worst in the world. Child mortality rates are
nearly twice as high in eastern Burma and the
maternal mortality ratio is triple the official national
figure.
While violence is endemic in these conflict zones,
direct losses of life from violence account for only
2.3% of deaths. The indirect health impacts of the
conflict are much graver, with preventable losses
of life accounting for 59.1% of all deaths and malaria
alone accounting for 24.7%. At the time of the
survey, one in 14 women was infected with Pf
malaria, amongst the highest rates of infection in
the world. This reality casts serious doubts over
official claims of progress towards reaching the
country’s Millennium Development Goals related to the health of women, children, and infectious
diseases, particularly malaria.
The survey findings also reveal widespread human
rights abuses against ethnic civilians. Among
surveyed households, 30.6% had experienced
human rights violations in the prior year, including
forced labor, forced displacement, and the
destruction and seizure of food. The frequency and
pattern with which these abuses occur against
indigenous peoples provide further evidence of the
need for a Commission of Inquiry into Crimes
against Humanity. The upcoming election will do
little to alleviate the situation, as the military forces
responsible for these abuses will continue to
operate outside civilian control according to the
new constitution.
The findings also indicate that these abuses are
linked to adverse population-level health outcomes,
particularly for the most vulnerable members of
the community—mothers and children. Survey
results reveal that members of households who
suffer from human rights violations have worse
health outcomes, as summarized in the table above.
Children in households that were internally
displaced in the prior year were 3.3 times more
likely to suffer from moderate or severe acute
malnutrition. The odds of dying before age one was
increased 2.5 times among infants from households
in which at least one person was forced to provide
labor.
The ongoing widespread human rights abuses
committed against ethnic civilians and the blockade
of international humanitarian access to rural
conflict-affected areas of eastern Burma by the
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
mean that premature death and disability,
particularly as a result of treatable and preventable
diseases like malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory
infections, will continue.
This will not only further devastate the health of
communities of eastern Burma but also poses a
direct health security threat to Burma’s neighbors,
especially Thailand, where the highest rates of
malaria occur on the Burma border. Multi-drug
resistant malaria, extensively drug-resistant
tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are
growing concerns. The spread of malaria resistant
to artemisinin, the most important anti-malarial
drug, would be a regional and global disaster.
In the absence of state-supported health
infrastructure, local community-based organizations
are working to improve access to health services in
their own communities. These programs currently
have a target population of over 376,000 people in
eastern Burma and in 2009 treated nearly 40,000
cases of malaria and have vastly increased access
to key maternal and child health interventions.
However, they continue to be constrained by a lack
of resources and ongoing human rights abuses by
the Burmese military regime against civilians. In
order to fully address the urgent health needs of
eastern Burma, the underlying abuses fueling the
health crisis need to end."

Language:

Burmese, English, Thai

Source/publisher:

The Burma Medical Association, National Health and Education Committee, Back Pack Health Worker Team

"Once considered to be the rice bowl of Asia, in 2008 Burma continued to languish and suffer
under the corrupt military rule of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
Burma’s authoritarian military regime. Burmese citizens faced countless human rights
violations aimed at destabilising and destroying livelihoods and building up the military, the
junta’s wealth and the wealth of state affiliated businessmen. As a result, the country
remained among the worst in the world in terms of inflation, poverty, health and education.
While approximately 40 percent of Burma’s annual spending goes toward funding the
military, only three percent is spent healthcare.1 (For more information, see Chapter 11:
Right to Health). The ruling junta has demonstrated a complete lack of will to implement
basic, sound economic principles, and maintains a system that continues to deny many
social and human rights to its people. The consequences of such negligence have been
dire, bringing the once prosperous nation another year closer to economic and social
collapse. In a report released in December of 2008, Burma ranked 135th out of 179
countries on the Human Development Index, down three places from the year before.
Moreover, the United Nations estimated that more than a third of Burmese children are
malnourished and more than 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line..."

Executive Summary: "Myanmar has a population of 52 million divided among 135 ethnic groups; it is a food-surplus country with significant agricultural potential. But unfavourable economic policies, extreme weather, protection issues, poor social cohesion and marginalized population groups adversely affect livelihood opportunities, resulting in inadequate access to food. A recent nationwide household survey revealed that a third of the population live below the poverty line. National prevalence of underweight and stunting among children under 5 is 32 percent.
The proposed operation provides food assistance for the most vulnerable and food-insecure populations. It is based on assessments, results monitoring, a WFP mid-term review of protracted relief and recovery operation 100663 and a formulation mission.
This operation is designed to respond to shocks and enhance vulnerable households' resilience and coping capacity through food assistance. The objectives are to:
> respond to the immediate food needs of people affected by shocks (Strategic Objective 1);
> support and re-establish the livelihoods of the most vulnerable and food-insecure populations affected by shocks (Strategic Objective 3);
> increase levels of education and maintain and/or improve the nutrition status of targeted women, girls and boys (Strategic Objective 4); and
> increase food purchases from small farmers and improve their marketing opportunities while building government and partner capacity to address food insecurity (Strategic Objective 5).
The operation is also in line with Millennium Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.
WFP will implement activities directly or through its cooperating partners. It will continue its partnerships with United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to complement food assistance and maximize the benefit of its activities.
Strategies adapted to different contexts will support the hand-over of WFP assistance. As food security improves in operational areas, WFP will scale its assistance down. Increasing national capacity remains a challenge for the sustainability of the hand-over of WFP-supported activities..."

"In the Kokang and Wa regions in northern Burma opium bans have ended over a century of poppy cultivation. The bans have had dramatic consequences for local communities. They depended on opium as a cash crop, to buy food, clothing, and medicines. The bans have driven poppy-growing communities into chronic poverty and have adversely affected their food security. Very few alternatives are being offered to households for their survival...
Conclusions & Recommendations:
• The opium bans have driven communities into chronic poverty and have adversely affected their food security and access to health care and education. • The Kokang and Wa authorities have promoted Chinese investment in mono-plantations, especially in rubber. These projects are unsustainable and do not significantly profit the population. • Ex-poppy farmers mainly rely on casual labour and collecting Non-Timber Forest Products as alternative source of income. • Current interventions by international NGOs and UN agencies are still limited in scale and can best be described as “emer-gency responses”. • If the many challenges to achieving viable legal livelihoods in the Kokang and Wa regions are not addressed, the reductions in opium cultivation are unlikely to be sustainable.
The Kokang and Wa cease-fire groups have implemented these bans following international pressure, especially from neighbouring China. In return, they hope to gain international political recognition and aid to develop their impoverished and war-torn regions. The Kokang and Wa authorities have been unable to provide alternative sources of income for ex-poppy farmers. Instead they have promoted Chinese invest-ment in monoplantations, especially in rubber. These projects have created many undesired effects and do not significantly profit the population.
The Burmese military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has also been unwilling and unable to provide assistance. The international community has provided emergency aid through inter-national NGOs and UN agencies. However, current levels of support are insufficient, and need to be upgraded in order to provide sustainable alternatives for the population. The international community should not abandon former opium-growing communities in the Kokang and Wa regions at this critical time..."

"...This study will examine the food (rice) availability at the national level using the official and FAO data. Second, a case study in the rice deficit region (Dry Zone) will present the characteristics and food security status of the farm and non-farm rural households (landless) and the determinants of food security. The Dry Zone was chosen to study because the EC & FAO (2007) classified this region as the most vulnerable area of the country. Furthermore, the FAO projected that the Net Primary Production would be decreased significantly in the Dry Zone in the next two decades. It is essential to collect the primary and secondary data on food availability, access, stability and utilization for understanding the current reality of food security at both macro and micro level...
Objectives of the Study:
> To assess the food (rice) availability at the national level by using indicators of trend of production index, growth rate of sown area, production and yield, average availability of rice, average per capita rice consumption, rice surplus, dietary energy supply of rice, share of food expenditure in total budget, self-sufficiency ratio, trends in domestic prices of rice and the estimated effects of the Nargis cyclone on rice self-sufficiency.
> To investigate the rural household's access to food in terms of human capital, food production, household income, asset ownership, and income diversification of farm and non-farm (landless) households.
> To examine the farm and non-farm household's food security status by applying the national food poverty line and the index of coping strategies method along with some indicators such as food share in the household budget, percentage of food expenditure in the total household income, and nutrition security indicators of access to safe drinking water, sanitation, diseases, and number of children death.

Mission Highlights:
• During the 2008 monsoon season, agricultural production suffered a significant decline in areas
severely affected by Cyclone Nargis, as a result of poor quality seeds, salinity and iron toxicity, lack of
agricultural labour and draught animals. Compared to the previous year, average paddy production is
estimated to have decreased by 32 percent in 7 affected townships in the Ayeyarwady Division and
by 35 percent in 3 affected townships of Yangon Division. At the divisional level, 2008 monsoon
paddy output was down by 13 percent in Ayeyarwady, and 9 percent in Yangon.
• Overall, aggretate food production in Myanmar is satisfactory, with positive outputs expected in most
states/divisions, reflecting favourable weather and increasing use of F1 and HYV rice seeds. The
Mission forecasts a 2008/09 (2008 monsoon and 2009 summer) cereal output of 21 million tonnes
(rice at 19.8 million tonnes, maize at 1.11 million tonnes, and wheat at 0.147 million tonnes),
3.2 percent below the previous year, but approximately 10 percent above the five-year average.
Cereal exports are expected to be high, with estimated rice exports of 477 000 tonnes and maize
exports of 159 000 tonnes conversely, up to 64 000 tonnes of wheat are expected to be imported.
• The cyclone-related damage to the livestock and fishing sectors in the Ayeyarwady Delta will continue
to affect food supply and income generation in 2008/09.
• Rats have damaged 685 hectares of rice and 400 hectares of maize in 121 villages of Chin
State;localized food insecurity in these villages is expected.
• Despite the increase in international rice prices, paddy prices in Myanmar remained low in 2008 due
to domestic market and trade barriers. These low prices, combined with the rising cost of fertilizer and
other major inputs, have significantly reduced farmers’ incentives profits, and may have negatively
impacted agricultural productivity and the country’s agricultural exports.
• The Mission received reports of high levels of malnutrition in northern Rakhine State and
recommends that a joint UNICEF and WFP food security and nutrition survey be conducted to verify
these reports and to plan appropriate interventions, if needed.
• In areas with high percentages of food insecure and vulnerable populations, defined as people living
below the food poverty line, baseline surveys are required to measure food security, vulnerability, and
nutrition, and plan appropriate interventions. Chin and Rakhine States are of the highest priority for
baseline surveys.
• There are more than 5 million people below the food poverty line in Myanmar. States/divisions which
the Mission found to be a priority for emergency food assistance are: cyclone-affected areas of
Ayeyarwady Division (85 000 tonnes); Chin State (23 000 tonnes), particularly those areas affected
by the rat infestation; Rakhine State (15 000 tonnes), particularly the north of the State; Kachin State
(8 300 tonnes); north Shan State (20 200 tonnes); east Shan State (7 000 tonnes); and Magwe
Division (27 500 tonnes). Most of the food commodities can be procured locally, with only a limited
requirement for imported food aid.
• The Mission recommends the following agricultural assistance in cyclone-affected Ayeyarwady and
Yangon Divisions: distribution of seeds for the coming summer and next monsoon planting seasons;
distribution of draught animals adapted to local climatic conditions; distribution of other livestock for
increased meat availability; distribution of hand tractors with training on their usage and maintenance;
distribution of fishing equipment; re-establishment of ice production plants; and training in
boat-building, net-making and on drafting of fishery laws.
• The Mission recommends the following actions in regard to national food policies: set up a market
information and food security warning system; develop balanced food production and trade policies
for both producers and consumers; remove domestic market/trade barriers; and improve market
integration.

Overview: "During two weeks in January 2009 a team from the Asia Programs unit of the Harvard Kennedy
School’s Ash Institute, International Development Enterprises (IDE), and the Ministry of
Agriculture and Irrigation of the Union of Myanmar conducted a humanitarian assessment of
food production and the agricultural economy in Myanmar. We focused on paddy production,
because rice is the country’s staple crop. Based on fieldwork in cyclone-affected areas of the
Ayeyarwady River Delta and in Upper Myanmar, we conclude that paddy output is likely to drop
in 2009, potentially creating a food shortage by the third quarter. Our estimates are based on
imperfect data, and this scenario may not materialize, but the avoidance of a food shortage this
year would represent a temporary reprieve, not a recovery. Myanmar’s rural sector is stretched to
the breaking point and the natural resilience that has sustained it is leaching away. This paper
recommends a set of interventions to avert this looming crisis: 1) an increase in credit for farmers
and other participants in the rice economy including traders and millers, 2) steps to increase the
farm gate price of paddy in order to create an incentive for farmers to produce more paddy, and 3)
a program to finance small-scale village infrastructure projects to increase demand for wage labor
for the rural poor who are most at risk.
This paper proceeds as follows. Section I describes the study’s rationale and methodology.
Section II presents the research team’s key findings. Section III offers an analytical framework
for considering how and why food markets fail. The next two sections consider the implications
of our finding, examining income loss, crop production, and land concerns. Section VI
recommends a three-pronged policy response. Section VII concludes by considering the
distinction between humanitarian responses and development strategy. Appendix I discusses
Myanmar’s likely actual GDP growth rate. Appendix II summarizes the policy options available
to the government in the face of continued deterioration of conditions in rural areas."

"Myanmar has a total land area of 676,577 sq km with a population of 57.50 million. Total net sown area is 11.67 ml ha with the cropping intensity of 157.1%. Forest cover, 33.44 ml ha accounted for nearly half of Myanmar's land area. Presently, only 60% of the 17.19 ml ha classified for agricultural production is being exploited.
Myanmar has a predominantly agricultural economy and agriculture sector contributed 45% of GDP, 11% of export earning and employed 63% of its labour force..."

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "The military regime of Burma has been consistent in their inability and unwillingness to protect and provide for the people of Burma. Burma’s human rights record provides testimony of decades of widespread violations and abuses perpetrated largely at the hands of Burma’s military rulers and their agents against the Burmese people. Dissent is regularly silenced and opponents brutalized. In a country once known as the “rice-bowl of Asia,” Burma is now one of the poorest countries of Asia due to steady economic deterioration driven by the regime’s mismanagement. Many in Burma live without access to proper schools, healthcare facilities, reliable electricity, safe drinking water, and stable food supplies. Cowed by policies of extreme oppression and tactics of intimidation, life for much of the population in Burma is a struggle for daily survival. Add to that a natural disaster- and survival in Burma reaches a critical point. Western Burma’s Chin State is at such a point. Since 2006, the region has been plagued by a severe food crisis following a steep reduction in the local harvest and food production. The year 2006 marked the beginning of a new cycle of bamboo flowering, which occurs about every 50 years in the region, triggering an explosion in the population of rats and resulting in the destruction of crops. This has caused a severe shortage of food for local communities primarily dependent on subsistence farming through shifting cultivation. The phenomenon has been documented three times since 1862, and each past event ended in a disastrous famine for the communities in the area. Compounding the impending food crisis in Chin State due to the bamboo flowering is the continuation of severe human rights violations and repressive economic policies of the military regime, which serve to further undermine the livelihoods and food security of the Chin people. The use of unpaid civilian forced labour is widespread throughout Chin State, which consumes the time and energy of local farmers and reduces their crop yields. The regime also forcibly orders farmers to substitute their staple crops for other cash crops, and has confiscated thousands of acres of farmland from local farmers for tea and jatropha plantations. Meanwhile, arbitrary taxes and mandatory “donations” collected from Chin households by the Burmese authorities total up to as much 200,000 Kyats a year in major towns.2 This includes the unofficial collection of money from the Chin public by officials in various government departments at the local level to support such programs as tea and bio-fuel plantations; and extortion and confiscation of money, properties, and livestock by military units stationed at 33 locations across the state. The rising cost of living and skyrocketing food prices is also adding to the already dire humanitarian situation in Chin State. In the last four years, the price of rice has quintupled from 6,000 Kyats a bag in 2004 to as much as 30,000 Kyats today, an amount equivalent to the monthly salary of entry level public servants. The humanitarian consequences stemming from the dying bamboo and exacerbated by conditions imposed by the regime are enormous, and there are clear indications that unless urgent action is taken to address the crisis, the situation could soon turn into a large-scale catastrophe affecting all parts of Chin State. The hardest hit areas are in the southern townships of Matupi and Paletwa where bamboo grows heavily, but reports suggest that severe food shortages are a state-wide phenomenon with many villages in the northern townships of Tonzang and Thantlang, for example, having already run out of food supplies. Based on the latest field surveys conducted in the affected areas, Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) estimates that as many as 200 villages may be directly affected by severe food shortages associated with the bamboo flowering, and no less than 100, 000 people or 20 percent of the entire population of Chin State may be in need of immediate food aid.3 Food scarcity is more severe in remote areas, where families are being reduced to one meal a day or have nothing left to eat at all. CHRO recently visited four border villages in India’s Mizoram State where it found 93 families from 22 villages in Paletwa Township, Chin State who fled across the border in search of food.
To date, Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has done nothing positive to counter the food scarcity, nor has the SPDC provided any kind of help to communities affected by the food crisis. Repeated requests by affected communities for food aid were denied, even as 100,000 metric tonnes of rice was exported to Sri Lanka.4 Rather, Burma Army soldiers have seized food aid donated by private donors and church groups.5 In contrast to the situation in Burma, India’s Mizoram and Manipur States, both adjacent to Chin State, are facing a similar food crisis related to the bamboo flowering, and have received millions of dollars in aid from the central government as well as international aid agencies, including USAID of the United States government, to support emergency programs to combat and manage the food crisis.6
In early May, when Cyclone Nargis ripped through lower Burma and the Irrawaddy delta destroying entire regions of land and leaving thousands homeless, hungry, and helpless, the regime clearly demonstrated their complete indifference to the plight of the Burmese people. In response to this natural disaster, they did shamefully little to ease the suffering of the victims and much to hamper relief efforts. As a result, the people of Burma paid a heavy price in the loss of life and continue to struggle under a regime that fails to protect or provide for its people. As another natural disaster unfolds in western Burma without hope of internal protections or provisions, the Chin people, like the cyclone victims, will be sure to pay a heavy toll unless action is taken immediately.
The critical point for action is now."

Abstract:
"This paper develops an agency model of contract choice in the hiring of labor and then uses the model to estimate the determinants of contract choice in rural Myanmar. As a salient feature relevant for the agricultural sector in a low income country such as Myanmar, the agency model incorporates considerations of food security and incentive effects. It is shown that when, possibly due to poverty, food considerations are important for employees, employers will prefer a labor contract with wages paid in kind (food) to one with wages paid in cash. At the same time, when output is responsive to workers' effort and labor monitoring is costly, employers will prefer a contract with piecerate
wages to one with hourly wages. The case of sharecropping can be understood as a combination of the two: a labor contract with piecerate
wages paid in kind. The predictions of the theoretical model are tested using a crosssection
dataset collected in rural Myanmar through a sample household survey which was conducted in 2001 and covers diverse agroecological
environments. The estimation results are consistent with the theoretical predictions: wages are more likely to be paid in kind when the share of staple food in workers' budget is higher and the farmland on which they produce food themselves is smaller; piecerate
wages are more likely to be adopted when work effort is more difficult to monitor and the farming operation requires quick completion...
JEL classification codes: J33, Q12, O12.
Keywords: contract, incentive, selection, food security, Myanmar.

Author/creator:

Takashi Kurosaki

Language:

English

Source/publisher:

Hitotsubashi University Research Unit for Statistical Analysis in Social Sciences

General Health:
Underlying causes of malnutrition --
Why health workers should feel concerned by nutritional issues? Misconceptions Concerning Nutrition: Voices of Community Health Educators and TBAs along the Thai-Burmese Border;
Micronutrients: The Hidden Hunger; Iron Deficiency Anaemia; The Vicious Circle of Malnutrition and Infection;
Treatment: IDENTIFYING MALNUTRITION; MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE SEVERE MALNUTRITION;
GROWTH MONITORING: THE BEST PREVENTION;
Fortified Flour for Refugees living in the camp;
Making Blended Flour at Local Level;
The example of MISOLA Flour in Africa.
Health Education: Pregnancy and Nutrition;
Breastfeeding;
WHEN RICE SOUP IS NOT ENOUGH:
First Foods - the Key to Optimal Growth and Development;
BUILDING A BALANCED DIET FOR GOOD HEALTH;
From the Field:
How Sanetun became a malnourished child?

"Myanmar has a policy of promoting food and nutrition security and, at the national level, food production is
more than that required to meet the country’s needs. Nevertheless, food and nutrition surveillance has revealed
that malnutrition still exists in the country, despite economic growth and national food self-sufficiency. The
National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition, formulated in 1994 and adopted in 1995, accorded priority to
household food and nutrition security. Accordingly, in 1996, in partnership with the World Health Organization
(WHO), the National Nutrition Centre embarked on a study of household food and nutrition security in
Myanmar. A preliminary situation analysis revealed that transitional changes in the economic, demographic and
social sectors have driven dramatic changes in people’s lifestyles, behaviour and practices and that these
changes affect food and nutrition security. The present paper explores household and intrahousehold
determinants of nutrition problems in Myanmar.".....Results
Preliminary descriptive analysis demonstrated more acute
malnutrition in the urban area than in the rural area for both
the pre- and post-harvest periods. Furthermore, nutritional
problems were more acute in both the urban and rural areas
during the preharvest period than during the post-harvest
period. Urban children consumed fewer calories than rural
children during both the pre- and post-harvest times, while
children in both rural and urban areas consumed fewer
calories during the preharvest period than during the postharvest
period, although all the differences were not statistically
significant......Keywords: care of the vulnerable, food security, malnutrition, Myanmar, National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition.

This document presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity
and Militarization in Burma. The Tribunal’s work will appeal to all readers interested in human rights and social
justice, as well as anyone with a particular interest in Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission presents this
report in order to stimulate discourse on human rights and democratization in Burma and around the world.

"This report describes the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar to meet their basic food needs. The report is produced by the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Unit at WFP Yangon.
Data was collected with the help cooperating partners, including ADRA, World Vision, WHH, REAM, CARE, KMSS, OISCA, AMDA, PACT Myanmar, Save the Children, Metta, NAG, Shalom foundation and Field Staff from eight WFP sub-offices and two field offices.
Market data related to household access to rice is collected on a monthly basis from WFP's current operational areas: Northern Rakhine State, Dry Zone-Magway, Northern Shan State: Lashio Areas, Kokang Special Region, Wa Special Region; Kachin State, Taunggyi area; and Yangon as shown in the adjacent map. The data collected includes rice prices, other commodities, and daily wages and employment opportunities."

"This report describes the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar to meet their basic food needs. The report is produced by the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Unit at WFP Yangon.
Data was collected with the help cooperating partners, including ADRA, World Vision, WHH, REAM, CARE, KMSS, OISCA, AMDA, PACT Myanmar, Save the Children, Metta, NAG, Shalom foundation and Field Staff from eight WFP sub-offices and two field offices.
Market data related to household access to rice is collected on a monthly basis from WFP's current operational areas: Northern Rakhine State, Dry Zone-Magway, Northern Shan State: Lashio Areas, Kokang Special Region, Wa Special Region; Kachin State, Taunggyi area; and Yangon as shown in the adjacent map. The data collected includes rice prices, other commodities, daily wages and employment opportunities..."

"...This report describes the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar to meet
their basic food needs. The report is produced by the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Unit at
WFP Yangon..."

This edition of the Food Basket Bulletin attempts to provide detailed analysis on food prices, casual labor
employment and wages for the time period May – August 2009.
* Section A is a summary of trends for the above mentioned four month period. This section
attempts to identify areas / locations that have seen the highest increase or decrease in 3 food
security performance indicators – rice prices, wage labor rates and employment.
* Section B consists of a more detailed analysis at the village tract level for the period May-August
2009.
This report describes the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar to meet
their basic food needs. The report is produced by the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Unit at
WFP Yangon

"This edition of the Food Basket Bulletin attempts to provide detailed analysis on food prices, casual labor
employment and wages for 2 time periods:
* Section A is based on an analysis of trends over relatively longer time-period. This period being the
last week of September 2008 – March 2009. This section is divided into two parts with Part 1
dealing with rice price trends and Part 2 with labor and wage trends. A brief analysis of data from
April has also been included at the conclusion of Part 1 and 2.
* Section B consists of a more detailed analysis at the village tract level for the period January – March
2009
This report describes the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar to meet
their basic food needs. The report is produced by the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Unit at
WFP Yangon."

This report describes the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar to meet their basic
food needs1, based on information up to December 2008. The report is produced by the Vulnerability Analysis &
Mapping (VAM) Unit at WFP Yangon....Highlights August to December 2008:
- Poor food access in Rakhine State is a cause for
serious concern. Although rice prices decreased;
fewer job opportunities and larger average HH size
meant that the gap between income and expenditure
grew.
- In NRS it is estimated that current average wages
and rice prices require that an average of 1.4
earners per household must work 6 days/week to
earn the minimum necessary income for
purchasing food.
- In the Magway area (of Dry Zone) female-headed HH
reported spending 100% of their income on food, but
later in the year both genders were able to save
- The price of rice in Kokang increased in August but
plateaued in September and October. After the
harvest, because of an increase in supply, prices
decreased.

This report attempts to describe the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in
Myanmar to meet their basic food needs1, based on information up to 31st of July 2008. The coverage, which has
been extended to the Delta Region after Cyclone Nargis, is based on monthly periodic reports produced by the
Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) Unit at WFP Yangon....Highlights June and July 2008
- The general trend in the price of food is still rising,
though at a slower rate since Cyclone Nargis in May;
- The price of rice increased significantly in the Delta in
July, after a decrease in mid-May and June;
- June saw the price of “cheap quality rice” diminish in
Yangon from mid-May to July, but this trend is
beginning to reverse, and the quality of this rice
(which needed to be dried after rice stores were
soaked during the cyclone) is improving;
- Rising salt prices nationwide are still affecting
household food baskets (though not significantly,
given the small quantities purchased), although
areas that weren’t relying solely on Myanmarproduced
salt have shown no change (Northern
Special Region (SR)1 for instance);
- Cash crop field preparation has been delayed in
Magway Division due to the heavy rainfall that has
resulted in the postponement of land preparation for
greengram cultivation;
- Fuel prices in Wa region are still increasing, though few
effects have been reported on the price of food in
general;
- Food access in Rakhine State is cause for serious
concern (wages are down and rice prices are up) as
the gap between income and expenditures is
widening at an alarming rate.

This report attempts to describe the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar to meet their basic food needs1, based on information up to 31st of May 2008. The coverage, which has been extended to the Delta Region after Cyclone Nargis, is based on monthly periodic reports produced by the Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) Unit at WFP Yangon....Highlights May 2008
- Rice prices generally increased locally in May(from 5 to 25%), not only as an effect of Nargis: the seasonal trend is usually for prices to increase during the lean season (April-August);
- As a direct result of the cyclone, the price of rice increased in Yangon (city) by at least 20%, after a shock increase in the first week;
- In the Delta, the rice price has returnedto normal, even lower than usual (though one may wonder about household purchasing capacity), due to the massive arrival of commodities via humanitarian aid;
- Salt prices were affected by the cyclone nationwide(hiccup in the price detected in Kokang SR1)due to damage to the salt industry in the Delta area;
- Fuel costs have almost returnedto normal in Eastern Shan State;
- The field preparation period has started in Lashio area, providing better wages (up 25-35%, to 3,300 Kyats per day in Mone Koe)and higher employment (4-6 days minimum);
- Rakhine State’s poor households are falling rapidlyinto poverty and destitution (the gap between income and expenditures widened in May from 5,700 to 5,800 Kyats weekly).

This report aims to describe the ability of poor and vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar in
meeting their basic food needs1 during the month of April, 2008. It is based on monthly periodic reports produced
by the Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) Unit at WFP Yangon....Highlights April 2008
¾ Certain areas show deterioration in terms of
employment and wages, but with little effect on
household economy, as accumulated savings from
previous months have allowed for survival (Kokang,
most of Lashio and Taunggyi areas). Other regions
show increased distress due to a rise in rice prices and
a decrease in employment (NRS, certain locations of
Lashio and Taunggyi area);
¾ Yenanchaung, in the Dry Zone, which was heavily
affected after the flood of July 2007, seems to have
recovered now. Pakhangyi, though less affected and
more agriculture-oriented, is entering a lean period of
lower wages and reduced employment;
¾ Due to petrol supply cuts in Wa Special Region 2, fuel
prices in certain areas are the underlying cause for an
increase in the price of goods (15 Yuan for a liter of
diesel resulted in a 60% increase of the price rice of
60%);
¾ With the exception of Rathedaung Township, which
shows higher wages than in 2007, Northern Rakhine
State is faring worse now than in April 2007: all three
townships are in an exceptionally worrying state due to
low wages, low employment and no assets to rely on.

This report attempts to describe the ability of poor vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar in meeting
their basic food needs1 during the month of March 2008. It is based on the monthly periodic reports produced by the
Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) Unit in WFP Yangon....Highlights March 2008
* Rice prices continue to remain high following the sharp
increase in December 2007. In some areas where the
prices have eased, wages have also fallen, maintaining
the pressure felt by poor households.
* Food security in NRS continues to be in a precarious
state. Most of the landless households have had
insufficient income to cover their food needs and have
relied heavily on alternative coping mechanisms in the
past several months. Severe hardship during the coming
lean season is now almost a certainty.
* In Kokang Special Region 1, employment opportunity
decreased thus did the average income. Despite this,
most of the poor households are still able to cover the
basic food cost.
* In Magway area, Yenanchaung finally shows a sign of
recovering from the devastating effects of flooding.
Female-headed households, however, remain below the
survival line and need close monitoring.
* New data collection in Kachin State provides a snap-shot
of what could be a positive picture of income vs.
expenditures balance; rice price is relatively steady and
wages are higher than the national average.
* In Mandalay, the increase in rice price is pushing more
female-headed households below survival thresholds.

This report attempts to describe the ability of poor vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar in meeting their basic food needs1 during the month of February 2008. It is based on the monthly periodic reports produced by the Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) unit in WFP Yangon....Highlights February 2008
* Rice price remains high in NRS, showing average 27% or 3600 K/household/week of increase compared withJanuary 2008. Poor households in Rathedaung and Buthidaung continue to face a large gap between their income and the cost of covering basic rice needs in the last two months, forced to adopt negative coping strategies such as taking loans. Increasing indebtedness early in the year may have a negative impact on further availiablity of credit for poor vulnerable households later in the year. There is a need to keep close monitoring in upcoming months.
* Households in remote areas in Southern Shan State(Hsi Hsaing, Seik Kaung, Moe Bye) continue to be confronted by scarce employment opportunities and low wages, coupled with increased rice prices.
* Food security Rural Dry Zone is still under severe pressure from increased rice price and decreased wages. Yenanchaung area needs particular attention, as it seems to suffer from chronic food insecurity.
* In most of Kokang SR1 and Lashio area, households are able to manage to accrue much needed savings thanks primarily to high employment rateand lower prices.
* Urban areas (Yangon and Mandalay) fare better since employment opportunities seem more stable.

This report attempts to describe the ability of poor vulnerable households in selected areas in Myanmar in meeting their basic food needs1 during the month of January 2008. It follows the monthly periodic reports produced by the Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) unit in WFP Yangon....Highlights January 2008
¾ Rice price increases up to 37% in Maungdaw forces many NRS households to adopt negative coping strategies. There is anecdotal evidence of out migration to Bangladesh. Increasing indebtedness early in the year could jeopardize future availability of credit. Covering basic rice needs costs between 70-87% more than last year in January ’07. There is a need to closely monitor the situation in upcoming months
¾ Households in remote areas in Lashio (Man Tone and Mon Koe areas) and Taunggyi (Bikin) continue to face difficulties in covering their rice needs, often spending up to 100% or more of their expenditures only on food.
¾ Households in Kokang and Lashio fare better in terms of meeting their basic rice needs in January primarily due to increased employment opportunities and lower rice prices.
¾ Households in Yenanchaung faced withincreases in rice prices and scarce employment opportunities experienced a downward trend in their ability to meet their rice needs.
This report includes three additional areas where market information is being collected, namely, Kachin State where WFP has just started new operations, Yangon and Mandalay urban markets....

"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.
The broad aim of the Thematic Group on Food Security and Agriculture in Myanmar (TGFSA) will be to intensify efforts towards achieving MDG 1 and the World Summit Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015.
The aim of the Delta Livelihoods Working Group is to create a forum for discussion on livelihoods issues and facilitate the formulation of complementary Cyclone Nargis Recovery Programmes in order to support and ensure livelihoods of people in the Delta are restored and improved."

Executive Summary: "Myanmar has a population of 52 million divided among 135 ethnic groups; it is a food-surplus country with significant agricultural potential. But unfavourable economic policies, extreme weather, protection issues, poor social cohesion and marginalized population groups adversely affect livelihood opportunities, resulting in inadequate access to food. A recent nationwide household survey revealed that a third of the population live below the poverty line. National prevalence of underweight and stunting among children under 5 is 32 percent.
The proposed operation provides food assistance for the most vulnerable and food-insecure populations. It is based on assessments, results monitoring, a WFP mid-term review of protracted relief and recovery operation 100663 and a formulation mission.
This operation is designed to respond to shocks and enhance vulnerable households' resilience and coping capacity through food assistance. The objectives are to:
> respond to the immediate food needs of people affected by shocks (Strategic Objective 1);
> support and re-establish the livelihoods of the most vulnerable and food-insecure populations affected by shocks (Strategic Objective 3);
> increase levels of education and maintain and/or improve the nutrition status of targeted women, girls and boys (Strategic Objective 4); and
> increase food purchases from small farmers and improve their marketing opportunities while building government and partner capacity to address food insecurity (Strategic Objective 5).
The operation is also in line with Millennium Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.
WFP will implement activities directly or through its cooperating partners. It will continue its partnerships with United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to complement food assistance and maximize the benefit of its activities.
Strategies adapted to different contexts will support the hand-over of WFP assistance. As food security improves in operational areas, WFP will scale its assistance down. Increasing national capacity remains a challenge for the sustainability of the hand-over of WFP-supported activities..."

"Welthungerhilfe is implementing two Food Security Projects (FSP) in former poppy growing
areas in Wein Kao District, Wa Special Region 2 in north-east Myanmar. The objective is to
develop alternative livelihoods of the formerly poppy-growing population. This is to be
achieved by establishing and strengthening village committees, by intensifying plant and
animal production, by increasing technical capacities of the beneficiaries and by improving
basic social services. The projects are implemented in neighbouring townships. Together
3000 households are targeted. Budget amounts to. 2,4 Mio EUR for both projects.
Welthungerhilfe is implementing both projects itself. Food aid programs are supplementing
project activities..."

"Myanmar has a policy of promoting food and nutrition security and, at the national level, food production is
more than that required to meet the country’s needs. Nevertheless, food and nutrition surveillance has revealed
that malnutrition still exists in the country, despite economic growth and national food self-sufficiency. The
National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition, formulated in 1994 and adopted in 1995, accorded priority to
household food and nutrition security. Accordingly, in 1996, in partnership with the World Health Organization
(WHO), the National Nutrition Centre embarked on a study of household food and nutrition security in
Myanmar. A preliminary situation analysis revealed that transitional changes in the economic, demographic and
social sectors have driven dramatic changes in people’s lifestyles, behaviour and practices and that these
changes affect food and nutrition security. The present paper explores household and intrahousehold
determinants of nutrition problems in Myanmar.".....Results
Preliminary descriptive analysis demonstrated more acute
malnutrition in the urban area than in the rural area for both
the pre- and post-harvest periods. Furthermore, nutritional
problems were more acute in both the urban and rural areas
during the preharvest period than during the post-harvest
period. Urban children consumed fewer calories than rural
children during both the pre- and post-harvest times, while
children in both rural and urban areas consumed fewer
calories during the preharvest period than during the postharvest
period, although all the differences were not statistically
significant......Keywords: care of the vulnerable, food security, malnutrition, Myanmar, National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition.

"This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during September 2011 in Than Daung Township by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw T---, a 46 year old betelnut and cardamom plantation farmer who described movement and trade restrictions during 2011, specifically the closure of a vehicle road, that disrupted the transport of staple food supplies, as previously reported by KHRG in "Toungoo Situation Update: May to July 2011". Saw T--- described past instances of the theft and looting of food supplies and the burning of cardamom plantations and noted that the sale price of villagers' agricultural outputs has fallen, while the cost of basic commodities has risen. He also described previous incidents in which a villager portering for Tatmadaw soldiers was shot whilst attempting to escape, and one villager was killed and another seriously injured by landmines, providing insight into the way past experience with violence continues to circumscribe villagers' options for responding to abuse. Saw T---nonetheless described how villagers hide food to prevent theft, and covertly trade in food staples and other commodities to evade movement and trade restrictions. Saw T--- also noted that villagers have introduced a monthly rota system in order to share village head duties."

Commentary: Stealing and Extortion of Livestock;
Random shooting and stealing of cattle;
Villager’s cows shot and stolen, tractor conscripted for forced labour, in Kae-See and Si-Paw;
A draught buffalo shot and stolen, a truck taken for forced labour, in Kae-See;
A pig extorted, a cow shot and stolen, in Murng-Nai;
A buffalo shot and stolen, porters conscripted, in Murng-Kerng;
A cow killed, its legs cut and stolen, in Murng-Nai;
Shooting and stealing of pigs;
A pig shot and stolen in Lai-Kha;
A pig forcibly taken away in front of its owner, in Murng-Nai;
A pig shot and stolen while the owners were away, in Kun-Hing;
A pig stolen, villagers forced to serve as guides and porters, in Kae-See;
Extortion of chickens;
Extortion of chickens in Murng-Nai;
Extortion of chickens and other food stuff, conscription of vehicles, in Murng-Kerng.

"This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in November 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Toungoo District during the period between July and October 2011. It details incidents of violence against civilians, including: shooting and killing by Tatmadaw LIB #540 of two villagers hunting monkeys in an area adjacent to a Tatmadaw camp; arbitrary detentions of eight civilians, of whom only three have been released by LIB #539 and IB #73; and the beating of a village head following a KNLA attack against Tatmadaw troops. The villager also cites examples of a range of abuses affecting villagers' livelihoods, including: forced labour repairing a road and producing and delivering bamboo poles to a Tatmadaw camp; theft and damage of villagers' possessions by patrolling Tatmadaw troops, including destruction of villagers' durian and dogfruit trees; the imposition of movement restrictions preventing villagers from sleeping in their field huts, backed by an explicit threat of violence against villagers violating the ban; de facto movement restrictions on villagers due to Tatmadaw activity; and arbitrary demands for payment by Tatmadaw troops. This report also raises concerns about the health situation in Tantabin Township following the 2011 monsoon, including an outbreak of cholera that interfered with the harvest of cardamom, durian and paddy crops, and may have adverse consequences on villagers' food and financial security during the coming year. The report also notes that some villagers access health services from the KNU Health Department and other relief groups in response to constraints on access to health care in areas of Tantabin Township outside consolidated Tatmadaw control."

"This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in September 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Pa'an District between June 2011 and August 2011. It details recent Tatmadaw and Tatmadaw Border Guard activity, including camp locations and troop strength, and incidents related to a forced relocation order issued to eight villages in Lu Pleh Township by Tatmadaw Border Guard units on July 15th 2011. After the July 20th deadline for relocation, Tatmadaw and Border Guard forces commenced joint attacks against six of the villages ordered to relocate, including multiple days of heavy shelling and machine gun fire which the villager who submitted this report described as indiscriminate. On July 20th 2011 Border Guard troops also deliberately killed villagers' livestock and fired mortars into civilian areas of R--- village, injuring a 50-year-old woman, while retreating from an attack by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) on the Border Guard camp in R---. This report further documents Tatmadaw Border Guard demands for forced labour and forced porters. The villager who submitted this update raises villagers' concerns related to flooding along the Dta Greh [Hlaing Bwe] River during the 2011 monsoon season, and the abandonment of schools and loss of trade and livelihood opportunities due to forced relocation. This report notes that, in response to the abuses and concerns mentioned above, villagers in Pa'an District adopt strategies that include: moving to areas beyond Tatmadaw control, monitoring local security conditions, and hiding food stores in the jungle."

"This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in August 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Toungoo District between April and July 2011. It describes a May 2011 attack on villages and the destruction of paddy and rice stores in the Maw Thay Der area of Tantabin Township, previously reported by KHRG, and relates the following human rights abuses by Tatmadaw forces: restrictions on movement and trade; including regular closure of vehicle roads and levying of road tolls; forced production and delivery of thatch shingles and bamboo poles; forced portering of military rations; and the theft and looting of villagers' livestock. This report also explains how community members share food when confronting food insecurity, and attempt to ensure that children receive education despite financial barriers and teacher shortages."

"This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in August 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Kawkareik, Kya In and Waw Raw (Win Yaw) townships of Dooplaya District between April and August 2011. The villager describes human rights abuses committed by soldiers from at least three Tatmadaw battalions, including: shelling of villages, resulting in civilian injuries and destruction of houses and food supplies; demands for the fabrication and delivery of thatch and bamboo, and for the provision of food; restrictions on villagers; detention, physical abuse, and killing of villagers; shooting of villagers; and a demand for villagers, including children, to clear the perimeter of a Tatmadaw camp. The villager also expresses concern that these abuses disrupt villagers' livelihoods and the provision of education for children."

"This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during May 2011 in Te Naw Th’Ri Township, Tenasserim Division by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw P---, the 36-year-old head of a village in which Tatmadaw soldiers maintain a continuous presence. Saw P--- described the disappearance of a male villager who has not been seen since February 2010 when he was arrested by Tatmadaw soldiers as he was returning from his hill plantation, on suspicion of supplying food assistance to Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) troops. Saw P--- also described human rights abuses and livelihoods difficulties faced regularly by villagers, including: forced labour, specifically road construction and maintenance; taxation and demands for food and money; theft of livestock; and movement restrictions, specifically the imposition of road tolls for motorbikes and the prohibition against travel to villagers’ agricultural workplaces, resulting in the destruction of crops by animals. Saw P--- also expressed concerns about disruption of children’s education caused by the periodic commandeering of the village school and its use as a barracks by Tatmadaw soldiers. He explained how villagers respond to abuses and livelihoods challenges by avoiding Tatmadaw soldiers, harvesting communally, sharing food supplies and inquiring at the local jail to investigate the disappearance of a fellow villager."

"At least 8,885 villagers in 118 villages in Lu Thaw Township, Papun District have either exhausted their current food supplies or are expecting to do so prior to the October 2011 harvest. The 118 villages are located in nine village tracts, where attacks on civilians by Burma's state army, the Tatmadaw, have triggered wide scale and repeated displacement since 1997. As tens of thousands of civilians in northern Karen State have been displaced, over-population in hiding areas where civilians can more effectively avoid attacks has created shortages of arable land, depleted soil fertility and reduced potential crop yields. Civilians forced to cultivate land or live near Tatmadaw camps, meanwhile, have faced recent attacks, including indiscriminate shelling and attacks on food supplies, buildings and livelihoods. These existing obstacles to food security were compounded by an unusually dry rainy season in 2010, coupled with other environmental factors, causing the 2010 harvest to fail. The impact of acute food shortages on the civilian population is magnified by budgetary constraints of local relief organisations, which can access the affected area but are currently unable to provide emergency assistance to many of those facing food shortages. This regional report is based on research conducted by KHRG researchers in Lu Thaw Township in February and March 2011, including 41 interviews with villagers and village and village tract leaders in the affected areas. This research was augmented by interviews with members of local relief organisations in February, March and April 2011."

"Tatmadaw forces continue to deliberately target civilians, civilian settlements and food supplies in northern Papun District. On February 25th 2011 shelling directed at communities in Saw Muh Bplaw, Ler Muh Bplaw and Plah Koh village tracts in Lu Thaw Township displaced residents of 14 villages as they sought temporary refuge at hiding sites in the forest. After villagers fled, Tatmadaw troops looted civilians' possessions, burned parts of settlement areas and destroyed buildings and food stores in Dteh Neh village. No civilian deaths or injuries were reported to result from this shelling; local village heads confirmed that all villagers affected managed to flee to safe locations during the shelling, many because of warnings received through a locally-developed system to alert community members of attacks. This report is informed by KHRG photo documentation, as well as interviews with and written testimony from a total of nine village heads, village tract leaders and village officials from communities located or hiding in the affected area. An additional 41 interviews conducted during February and March 2011 in Lu Thaw Township were also drawn upon."

Commentary: Extortion and Stealing of Livestock...
Situation of shooting and stealing of villagers’ cattle in Shan State...
Villager’s buffalos shot for meat in Murng-Ton...
Extortion and stealing of chickens and cattle in Kun-Hing...
A farmer’s buffalo, used for ploughing rice field, shot and stolen, in Larng-Khur...
Vegetables extorted, cow shot for meat, in Murng-Kerng...
Villager’s Buffalo shot dead in Murng- Yai...
Situation of extortion and stealing of pigs and chickens...
Extortion and stealing of chickens and pigs in Murng-Kerng...
Extortion of chickens, rice and money, in Loi-Lem...
Stealing of chickens in Lai-Kha...
Intimidation and extortion of chickens in Larng-Khur.

"The attacks against civilians continue as the SPDC increases its military build-up in Toungoo District. Enforcing widespread restrictions on movement backed up by a shoot-on-sight policy, the SPDC has executed at least 38 villagers in Toungoo since January 2007. On top of this, local villagers face the ever present danger of landmines, many of which were manufactured in China, which the Army has deployed around homes, churches and forest paths. Combined with the destruction of covert agricultural hill fields and rice supplies, these attacks seek to undermine food security and make life unbearable in areas outside of consolidated military control. However, as those living under SPDC rule have found, the constant stream of military demands for labour, money and other supplies undermine livelihoods, village economies and community efforts to address health, education and social needs. Civilians in Toungoo must therefore choose between a situation of impoverishment and subjugation under SPDC rule, evasion in forested hiding sites with the constant threat of military attack, or a relatively stable yet uprooted life in refugee camps away from their homeland. This report documents just some of the human rights abuses perpetrated by SPDC forces against villagers in Toungoo District up to July 2007..."

"As the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) continues its Karen State offensive into the
rainy season, villagers living in Lu Thaw township in northern Papun District have come under
increasing pressure as a consequence of the military encroachment onto their land. KHRG field
researchers have documented attacks on villages, destruction of crops and targeted killings in the
area. Villagers residing in Dweh Loh and Bu Tho townships further south, outside the area of the
systematic offensive against villages, confront a different pattern of abuse involving constant
demands for labour, money, food and building supplies. These villagers are confronted with a
situation of heightened insecurity as a consequence of the persistent demands of SPDC and
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) forces..."

"This report describes the current situation faced by rural Karen villagers in Toungoo District (known as Taw Oo in Karen). Toungoo District is the northernmost district of Karen State, sharing borders with Karenni (Kayah) State to the east, Pegu (Bago) Division to the west, and Shan State to the north. To the south Toungoo District shares borders with the Karen districts of Nyaunglebin (Kler Lweh Htoo) and Papun (Mutraw). The westernmost portion of the district bordering Pegu Division consists of the plains of the Sittaung River, which are heavily controlled by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta which presently rules Burma. The rest of the district to the east is covered by steep and forested hills that are home to Karen villagers who live in small villages strewn across the hills. For years, the SPDC has endeavoured to extend its control through the hills, but their efforts thus far have been hampered by the continued armed resistance of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). Within the areas that are strongly controlled by the SPDC, the villagers must live with constant demands for forced labour, food, and money from the SPDC battalions that are based in the area. Villages that do not comply with SPDC demands risk being relocated and burned. Many villages have been burned and their inhabitants forcibly relocated to sites where the SPDC may more easily control and exploit them. Those villagers who do not move to the relocation sites flee into the jungles where they live as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Several thousand villagers now live internally displaced in the mountains of Toungoo District. These villagers live in almost constant fear of SPDC Army units, and must run for their lives if they receive word that a column of soldiers is approaching. SPDC Army columns routinely shoot displaced villagers on sight. The villagers here continue to suffer severe human rights violations at the hands of the SPDC Army soldiers, including, but not limited to summary arrest, torture, forced labour, extortion, extrajudicial execution, and the systematic destruction of crops and food supplies.
Although a verbal ceasefire is in place between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the SPDC, not much has changed for the villagers in the district. KNLA and SPDC military units still occasionally clash. The SPDC has taken advantage of the ceasefire to move more troops into the area and to build new camps. These new camps and troops have meant that the villagers now have to do forced labour building the new camps and portering supplies up to the camps. There are also more troops and camps to demand food and money from the villagers. The many new camps have made it more difficult for internally displaced villagers work their fields or to go to find food..."

Roads, Relocations, and the Campaign for Control in Toungoo District. Based on interviews and field reports from KHRG field researchers in this northern Karen district, looks at the phenomenon of 'Peace Villages' under SPDC control and 'Hiding Villages' in the hills; while the 'Hiding Villages' are being systematically destroyed and their villagers hunted and captured, the 'Peace Villages' face so many demands for forced labour and extortion that many ofthem are fleeing to the hills. Looks at forced labour road construction and its relation to increasing SPDC militarisation of the area, and also at the new tourism development project at Than Daung Gyi which involves large-scale land confiscation and forced labour. Keywords: Karen; KNU; KNLA; SPDC deserters; Sa Thon Lon activities; human minesweepers; human shields; reprisals against villagers; abuse of village heads; SPDC army units; military situation; forced relocation; strategic hamletting; relocation sites; internal displacement; IDPs; cross-border assistance; forced labour; torture; killings; extortion, economic oppression; looting; pillaging; burning of villages; destruction of crops and food stocks; forced labour on road projects; road building; restrictions on movment; lack of education and health services; tourism project; confiscation of land and forced labour for tourism project;landmines; malnutrition; starvation; SPDC Orders.
... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced

"This report describes the current situation for rural Karen villagers in Toungoo District (known in Karen as Taw Oo), which is the northernmost region of Karen State in Burma. The western part of the district forms part of the Sittaung River valley in Pegu (Bago) Division, and this region is strongly controlled by the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) military junta which rules Burma. Further east, the District is made up of steep and forested hills penetrated by only one or two roads and dotted with small Karen villages; in this region the SPDC is struggling to strengthen its control in the face of armed resistance by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). (Click here to see map) In the strongly SPDC-controlled areas, the villagers suffer from constant demands for forced labour and money from all of the SPDC military units based there, and from the constant threat of punishments should their village fail to comply with any order of the military. In the eastern hills, many villages have been forcibly relocated and partly burned as part of the SPDC’s program of attempting to undermine the resistance by attacking the civilian villagers. Here people are suffering all forms of serious human rights abuses committed by SPDC troops, including random killings, burning of homes, the systematic destruction of crops and food supplies, forced labour, looting and extortion..."
Increasing SPDC Military Repression in Toungoo District of Northern Karen State

"The following testimonies and information have been gathered by our human rights monitors from civilian villagers in the Bilin River area and eastward toward the Salween River, in Thaton District of Karen and northeastern Mon States. Names which have been changed to protect people are given in quotation marks. All other names are real. Some details have been omitted from stories to protect people. In the testimonies, SLORC soldiers sometimes mention Ringworm’ and 'Kaw Thoo Lei' - they use both terms to mean 'Karen soldiers’. 'KNU' is short for Karen National Union, the Karen government. All numeric dates are written in dd-mm-yy format. Please feel free to use this report in any way which may help the peoples of Burma, but do not forward it to any SLORC representatives.
TOPIC SUMMARY
Torture (Stories #1,2,3,4,5,6,8), Execution , (#2,3,4 5,6,7,11), Detention (#1,8,9), Shooting at villagers (#1,3,4,6,7,8,11), Forced labour (#5,7), Looting (#6,10,11), Extortion (#3,4), Burning homes (#6,10,11), Destroying food supplies (#9,10), Threatening a monk (#10), SLORC response when villagers report abuse (#2,3,4), People fleeing villages (#1,3,4,8)..."
Bilin, Pa'an, Papun Townships, Thaton District. May-Dec 94; Karen M, F. IT (beating); torture; arbitrary detention; killing; extortion;depletion of village; looting (lists of some items); pillaging (looting and destruction of crops and foodstuffs -- lists); EO; burning of houses.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
"Regardless of the outcomes in Burma’s first elections for twenty years, the incoming
government and international community cannot afford to ignore the deteriorating
socio-economic conditions that plague the country any longer. The urgency is
particularly acute in eastern Burma where protracted armed conflict and restrictions
on humanitarian access have exacerbated the legacy of chronic poverty.
The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) has been collaborating with ethnic
community-based organisations to document conditions in eastern Burma since 2002.
This year, apart from updating information about displacement across six states and
divisions, poverty assessments were also conducted in six townships. The poverty
assessment was developed in consultation with humanitarian agencies based in
Rangoon/Yangon as a contribution towards developing a credible, nation-wide
database of indicators for household vulnerability.
Government statistics disguise the extent of suffering and suggest relatively low levels
of poverty in eastern Burma. This is because surveys are not allowed in some areas
and pockets of extreme vulnerability are not taken into account when data is only
disaggregated to the State or Division level. However, the indicators for vulnerability
in eastern Burma documented in this report are comparable to the worst findings
that international agencies have reported anywhere in Burma. Impoverishment is
particularly severe in the rural areas of Kyaukgyi Township where half of the sample
population reported displacement, forced labour and restrictions on movement had
caused shocks to livelihoods during the previous six months.
Analysis of the demographic structure in eastern Burma reveals high birth and child
mortality rates as well as low life expectancy. There is a high degree of dependency
on a relatively small working age population, and almost half of the population
surveyed has no proof of citizenship. These characteristics are more comparable to
the vulnerability experienced in northern Rakhine State than national averages.
Offi cial fi gures suggest that poverty rates in Kachin State and Magway Division are
amongst the worst in the nation. However, this survey indicates that basic living
conditions, such as access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation facilities,
are generally worse in eastern Burma. The lack of durable shelter resulting from
protracted conflict in eastern Burma resembles conditions in the Irrawaddy Delta a
year after Cyclone Nargis wreaked havoc.
Government statistics claim the average farming household owns 6 acres of land, but
this survey found 64% of rural households have access to less than two acres of land
and only 13% have access to irrigated fields. These seemingly contradictory fi gures
reflect large inequalities with regards to land tenure in Burma. The labour intensive
nature of agriculture is indicated by over 80% of farmers lacking farm machinery and
being dependent on simple tools.
Official data suggests that northern Shan State suffers from food insecurity more
than most regions in Burma, but this survey fi nds the situation in south eastern
Burma is comparable. Three quarters of the households in south eastern Burma had
experienced food shortages during the month prior to being surveyed, and a similar
proportion were preparing for a gap in rice supply of at least three months prior to the
next harvest. Food consumption analysis identifi es that 60% of households surveyed
have an inadequate diet, while acute malnutrition rates amongst children suggest a
serious public health problem.
While numerous indicators reflect severe vulnerabilities in eastern Burma, there is
also evidence that subsistence livelihoods are highly resilient. The main source of
staple food for three quarters of households is either their own rice crop or social
networks, while access to cash income is more limited than elsewhere in the country.
The low dependence on trade and high degrees of self reliance are also reflected by
a relatively low proportion of household expenditures on food. This would generally
be considered an indicator for lower levels of poverty, but comparisons are distorted
because of increased restrictions on movement and reduced access to markets in
the conflict-affected areas of eastern Burma.
Impoverishment in eastern Burma is a bi-product of militarisation and a key factor
contributing to displacement. During the past year, SPDC attempts to pressure ethnic
ceasefi re groups to transform into Border Guard Forces have increased insecurity
in areas which were relatively stable. The main ceasefi re parties have resisted the
pressure and reiterated calls for a review of the 2008 Constitution and political dialogue
to promote national reconciliation. In response, the Burmese Army has forcibly
conscripted and extorted villagers to form ethnic militia units to act as proxy forces in
case ceasefire agreements collapse.
This year’s survey estimates at least 73,000 people were forced to leave their homes in
eastern Burma between August 2009 and July 2010. The highest rates of displacement
were reported in northern Karen areas, where over 26,000 villagers were forced from
their homes by Burmese Army artillery attacks against civilians and by forced eviction
orders. More than 8,000 villagers in southern Mon areas also fl ed from their homes
as a result of instability and conflict induced by the Border Guard Force conversion
orders and by forced relocations.
TBBC’s partner agencies have documented the destruction, forced relocation or
abandonment of more than 3,600 civilian settlements in eastern Burma since 1996,
including 113 villages and hiding sites during the past year. Coercive practices by
armed forces have also undermined livelihoods and contributed to at least 446,000
people being internally displaced in the rural areas of eastern Burma at the end of
2010. As this conservative estimate only covers 37 townships and discounts urban
areas, it is likely that well over half a million internally displaced persons remain in
eastern Burma.
Military appointees and proxy party representatives are expected to control government
after the elections, and there is no indication that political indifference to human
suffering will change in the immediate future. The political challenge remains to press
and engage with the national authorities for a genuine process of national reconciliation
and the rights-based rule of law.
However, there is an urgent need to scale up poverty alleviation and humanitarian
relief efforts and there are capacities within Rangoon and border-based aid agencies to
absorb additional funding immediately. The humanitarian and development challenge
is to ensure that aid funding and programming are based on needs and vulnerabilities
rather than political agendas."

"As the 2009 rainy season draws to a close, displaced villagers in northern Papun District's Lu Thaw
Township face little prospect of harvesting sufficient paddy to support them over the next year. After four
straight agricultural cycles disrupted by Burma Army patrols, which continue to shoot villagers on sight
and enforce travel and trade restrictions designed to limit sale of food to villagers in hiding, villagers in
northern Papun face food shortages more severe than anything to hit the area since the Burma Army
began attempts to consolidate control of the region in 1997. Consequently, the international donor
community should immediately provide emergency support to aid groups that can access IDP areas in Lu
Thaw Township. In southern Papun, meanwhile, villagers report ongoing abuses and increased activity
by the SPDC and DKBA in Dwe Loh and Bu Thoh townships. In these areas, villagers report abuses
including movement restrictions, forced labour, looting, increased placement of landmines in civilian
areas, summary executions and other forms of arbitrary abuse. This report documents abuses occurring
between May and October 2009..."

"This report documents the situation for villagers in Toungoo District, both in areas under SPDC control and in areas contested by the KNLA and home to villagers actively evading SDPC control. For villagers in the former, movement restrictions, forced labour and demands for material support continue unabated, and continue to undermine their attempts to address basic needs. Villagers in hiding, meanwhile, report that the threat of Burma Army patrols, though slightly reduced, remains sufficient to disrupt farming and undermine food security. This report includes incidents occurring from January to August 2009..."

"International reporting of the large-scale migration of those leaving Burma in search of work abroad has highlighted the perils for migrant during travel and in host countries. However, there has been a lack of research in the root causes of this migration. Identifying the root causes of migration has important implications for the assistance and protection of these migrants. Drawing on over 150 interviews with villagers in rural Burma and those from Burma who have sought employment abroad, this report identifies the exploitative abuse underpinning poverty and livelihoods vulnerability in Burma which, in turn, are major factors motivating individuals to leave home and seek work abroad..."
_Thailand-based interviewees explained to KHRG how exploitative abuses increased poverty, livelihoods vulnerability and food insecurity for themselves and their communities in Burma. These issues were in turn cited as central push factors compelling them to leave their homes and search for work abroad. In some cases, interviewees explained that the harmful effects of exploitative abuse were compounded by environmental and economic factors such as flood and drought and limited access to decent wage labour.[17]
While the individuals interviewed by KHRG in Thailand would normally be classified as 'economic migrants', the factors which they cited as motivating their choice to migrate make it clear that SPDC abuse made it difficult for them to survive in their home areas. Hence, these people decided to become migrants not simply because they were lured to Thailand by economic incentives, but because they found it impossible to survive at home in Burma. Clearly, the distinction between push and pull factors is blurred in the case of Burmese migrants.
The concept of pull factors for migrants is further complicated because migrants are not merely seeking better jobs abroad, but are instead pulled to places like Thailand and Malaysia in order to access protection. For refugees and IDPs, protection is a service that is often provided by government bodies, UN agencies and international NGOs. For refugees in particular, protection is often primarily understood to mean legal protection against refoulement - defined as the expulsion of a person to a place where they would face persecution. Beyond legal protection against refoulement, aid agencies have implemented specific forms of rights-based assistance, such as gender-based violence programmes, as part of their protection mandates.
However, for migrants from Burma the act of leaving home is overwhelmingly a self-initiated protection strategy through which individuals can ensure their and their families' basic survival in the face of persistent exploitative and other abuse in their home areas. This broader understanding of protection goes beyond legal protection against refoulement and the top-down delivery of rights-based assistance by aid agencies. It involves actions taken by individuals on their own accord to lessen or avoid abuse and its harmful effects at home.[18]
KHRG has chosen to use the term self-initiated protection strategy, rather than a more generic concept like 'survival strategy', in order to highlight the political agency of those who choose such migration. By seeing this protection in political terms, one can better understand both the abusive underpinnings of migration from Burma as well as the relevance of such migration to the protection mandates of governments, UN agencies and international NGOs currently providing support to conventional refugee populations. Understanding protection in this way presents opportunities for external support for the many self-initiated protection strategies (including efforts to secure employment without exploitation, support dependent family members, enrol children in school and avoid arrest, extortion and deportation) which migrant workers regularly use._

"This report describes SPDC operations in and around internally displaced person hiding sites in Lu Thaw Township, Papun District. Villagers in this area continue to face constant physical threats and food insecurity caused by SPDC patrols-indeed, residents have been prevented from consistently accessing their farm fields for so long that they now face a dire food crisis. This report also details the rape of a 13-year-old girl by an SPDC soldier in Dweh Loh Township and the local military commander's attempt to cover up the incident. This report examines cases of SPDC abuse from December 2008 to March 2009..."

"SPDC abuses against civilians continue in northern Karen State, especially in the Lu Thaw and Dweh Loh townships of Papun District. Abuses have been particularly harsh in Lu Thaw, most of which has been designated a "black area" by the SPDC and so subject to constant attacks by Burma Army forces. Villagers who decide to remain in their home areas are often forced to live in hiding and not only face constant threats of violence by the SPDC, but also a worsening food crisis due to the SPDC's disruption of planting cycles. This report covers events in Papun District from August 2008 to January 2009..."

"The SPDC has continued to militarise larger and larger swaths of Toungoo District under the false banner of 'development', subjecting local villagers to forced labour and extortion and forcing others to flee into hiding. Life is hard for villagers both under and outside of SPDC control: villagers living within SPDC-controlled areas are often forced to work for the SPDC rather than focus on their own livelihoods while villagers in hiding continue to struggle with a shortage of food. Ultimately, many residents of Toungoo face a mounting food crisis that is a direct result of SPDC policy. This report discusses incidents that occurred between May and September 2008..."

"While the rainy season is now underway in Karen state, Burma Army soldiers are continuing with military operations against civilian communities in Toungoo District. Local villagers in this area have had to leave their homes and agricultural land in order to escape into the jungle and avoid Burma Army attacks. These displaced villagers have, in turn, encountered health problems and food shortages, as medical supplies and services are restricted and regular relocation means any food supplies are limited to what can be carried on the villagers' backs alone. Yet these displaced communities have persisted in their effort to maintain their lives and dignity while on the run; building new shelters in hiding and seeking to address their livelihood and social needs despite constraints. Those remaining under military control, by contrast, face regular demands for forced labour, as well as other forms of extortion and arbitrary 'taxation'. This report examines military attacks, forced labour and movement restrictions and their implications in Toungoo District between March and June 2008..."

Conclusion: "Most relevant reports and surveys I have been able to access state essentially that people from all parts of Burma leave home either in obedience to a direct relocation order from the military or civil authorities or as a result of a process whereby coercive measures imposed by the authorities play a major role in forcing down household incomes to the point where the family cannot survive. At this point, leaving home may seem to be the only option. These factors, which include direct forced relocation, forced labour, extortion and land confiscation, operate in, are affected by and exacerbate a situation of widespread poverty, rising inflation and declining real incomes. In other words, people leave home due to a combination of coercive and economic factors. One has to consider the whole process leading to displacement rather than a single, immediate cause. Where coercive measures, as described in this article, are involved, the resulting population movement falls under the Guiding Principles even if the situation that actually triggers movement, frequently food insecurity, may also be described in economic terms."

"Having initially begun construction a decade ago, the SPDC has this year completed the Papun section of a roadway which extends northwards from the east-west Kyauk Kyi to Saw Hta vehicle road towards the SPDC army camp at Buh Hsa Kee in southern Toungoo District. While still incomplete on the Toungoo side of the border the Papun section effectively cuts the northern half of Lu Thaw township into two east-west sections and forms a dangerous and difficult to cross barrier for those civilians fleeing from ongoing military attacks against their communities. Nevertheless villagers in Lu Thaw and other areas of Papun continue to evade SPDC forces and the district currently has the highest number of internally displaced people in hiding out of any area of eastern Burma. Notwithstanding the creative and courageous strategies which these villagers have adopted in order to avoid the army columns which continue to hunt them down, they remain in a precarious situation; one which has only heightened in its severity with the completion of the Papun section of the north-south vehicle road and the upgrading of other roadways further south..."

This report is a preliminary exploration of forced migration/internal displacement in Burma/Myanmar in two main areas. The first is the status in terms of international standards, specifically those embodied in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, of the people who leave home not because of conflict or relocation orders, but as a result of a range of coercive measures which drive down incomes to the point that the household economy collapses and people have no choice but to leave home. Some analysts describe this form of population movement as "economic migration" since it has an economic dimension. The present report, however, looks at the coercive nature of the pressures which contribute to the collapse of the household economy and argues that their compulsory and irresistible nature brings this kind of population movement squarely into the field of forced migration, even though the immediate cause of leaving home may also be described in economic terms...
The second area is geographic. The report looks at those parts of Burma not covered by the IDP Surveys of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which concentrate on the conflict and post-conflict areas of Eastern Burma. It hardly touches on conflict-induced displacement since most parts of Burma covered in these pages, including the major cities, are government-controlled, and there is little overt military conflict in these States and Divisions. Within these parts of the country, the report looks at the coercive measures referred to above. It also carries reports of direct relocation by government agents through which whole rural and urban communities are removed from their homes and either ordered to go to specific places, or else left to their own devices. The report annexes contain more than 500 pages of documentation on forced displacement and causes of displacement in Arakan, Chin, Kachin and Eastern and Northern Shan States as well as Irrawaddy, Magwe, Mandalay, West Pegu, Rangoon and Sagaing Divisions. It also has a section on displacement within urban and peri-urban areas.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:-
1. Food Security from a Rights-based Perspective;
2. Local Observations from the States and Divisions
of Eastern Burma:-
2.1 Tenasserim Division
(Committee for Internally Displaced Karen Persons);
2.2 Mon State (Mon Relief and Development Committee);
2.3 Karen State (Karen Human Rights Group)
2.4 Eastern Pegu Division (Karen Office of Relief and Development);
2.5 Karenni State (Karenni Social Welfare Committee);
2.6 Shan State (Shan Human Rights Foundation)...
3. Local Observations of Issues Related to Food Security:-
3.1 Crop Destruction as a Weapon of War (Committee for Internally Displaced Karen Persons);
3.2 Border Areas Development (Karen Environmental & Social Action Network);
3.3 Agricultural Management(Burma Issues);
3.4 Land Management (Independent Mon News Agency)
3.5 Nutritional Impact of Internal Displacement (Backpack Health Workers Team);
3.6 Gender-based Perspectives (Karen Women’s Organisation)...
4. Field Surveys on Internal Displacement and Food Security...
Appendix 1 : Burma’s International Obligations
and Commitments...
Appendix 2 : Burma’s National Legal Framework...
Appendix 3 : Acronyms, Measurements and Currencies....
"...Linkages between militarisation and food scarcity in Burma were
established by civilian testimonies from ten out of the fourteen states and
divisions to a People’s Tribunal in the late 1990s. Since then the scale of
internal displacement has dramatically increased, with the population in
eastern Burma during 2002 having been estimated at 633,000 people, of
whom approximately 268,000 were in hiding and the rest were interned
in relocation sites. This report attempts to complement these earlier
assessments by appraising the current relationship between food security
and internal displacement in eastern Burma. It is hoped that these
contributions will, amongst other impacts, assist the Asian Human Rights
Commission’s Permanent People’s Tribunal to promote the right to food
and rule of law in Burma...
Personal observations and field surveys by community-based organisations
in eastern Burma suggest that a vicious cycle linking the deprivation of
food security with internal displacement has intensified. Compulsory paddy
procurement, land confiscation, the Border Areas Development program
and spiraling inflation have induced displacement of the rural poor away
from state-controlled areas. In war zones, however, the state continues to
destroy and confiscate food supplies in order to force displaced villagers
back into state-controlled areas. An image emerges of a highly vulnerable
and frequently displaced rural population, who remain extremely resilient
in order to survive based on their local knowledge and social networks.
Findings from the observations and field surveys include the following:..."

"This report consists of an Introduction and Executive Summary, followed by a detailed analysis of the situation supported by quotes from interviews and excerpts from SPDC order documents sent to villages in the region. As mentioned above, an Annex to this report containing the full text of the remaining interviews can be seen by following the link from the table of contents or from KHRG upon approved request..."
Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District

Executive Summary: "This report reveals that the health of populations in conflict-affected areas of eastern Burma, particularly women and children, is amongst the worst in the world, a result of official disinvestment in health, protracted conflict and the abuse of civilians..."Diagnosis: Critical" demonstrates that a vast area of
eastern Burma remains in a chronic health
emergency, a continuing legacy of longstanding
official disinvestment in health, coupled with
protracted civil war and the abuse of civilians. This
has left ethnic rural populations in the east with
41.2% of children under five acutely malnourished.
60.0% of deaths in children under the age of 5 are
from preventable and treatable diseases, including
acute respiratory infection, malaria, and diarrhea.
These losses of life would be even greater if it were
not for local community-based health organizations,
which provide the only available preventive and
curative care in these conflict-affected areas.
The report summarizes the results of a large scale
population-based health and human rights survey
which covered 21 townships and 5,754 households
in conflict-affected zones of eastern Burma. The
survey was jointly conducted by the Burma Medical
Association, National Health and Education
Committee, Back Pack Health Worker Team and
ethnic health organizations serving the Karen,
Karenni, Mon, Shan, and Palaung communities.
These areas have been burdened by decades of civil
conflict and attendant human rights abuses against
the indigenous populations.
Eastern Burma demographics are characterized by
high birth rates, high death rates and the significant
absence of men under the age of 45, patterns more
comparable to recent war zones such as Sierra
Leone than to Burma’s national demographics.
Health indicators for these communities, particularly
for women and children, are worse than Burma’s
official national figures, which are already amongst
the worst in the world. Child mortality rates are
nearly twice as high in eastern Burma and the
maternal mortality ratio is triple the official national
figure.
While violence is endemic in these conflict zones,
direct losses of life from violence account for only
2.3% of deaths. The indirect health impacts of the
conflict are much graver, with preventable losses
of life accounting for 59.1% of all deaths and malaria
alone accounting for 24.7%. At the time of the
survey, one in 14 women was infected with Pf
malaria, amongst the highest rates of infection in
the world. This reality casts serious doubts over
official claims of progress towards reaching the
country’s Millennium Development Goals related to the health of women, children, and infectious
diseases, particularly malaria.
The survey findings also reveal widespread human
rights abuses against ethnic civilians. Among
surveyed households, 30.6% had experienced
human rights violations in the prior year, including
forced labor, forced displacement, and the
destruction and seizure of food. The frequency and
pattern with which these abuses occur against
indigenous peoples provide further evidence of the
need for a Commission of Inquiry into Crimes
against Humanity. The upcoming election will do
little to alleviate the situation, as the military forces
responsible for these abuses will continue to
operate outside civilian control according to the
new constitution.
The findings also indicate that these abuses are
linked to adverse population-level health outcomes,
particularly for the most vulnerable members of
the community—mothers and children. Survey
results reveal that members of households who
suffer from human rights violations have worse
health outcomes, as summarized in the table above.
Children in households that were internally
displaced in the prior year were 3.3 times more
likely to suffer from moderate or severe acute
malnutrition. The odds of dying before age one was
increased 2.5 times among infants from households
in which at least one person was forced to provide
labor.
The ongoing widespread human rights abuses
committed against ethnic civilians and the blockade
of international humanitarian access to rural
conflict-affected areas of eastern Burma by the
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
mean that premature death and disability,
particularly as a result of treatable and preventable
diseases like malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory
infections, will continue.
This will not only further devastate the health of
communities of eastern Burma but also poses a
direct health security threat to Burma’s neighbors,
especially Thailand, where the highest rates of
malaria occur on the Burma border. Multi-drug
resistant malaria, extensively drug-resistant
tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are
growing concerns. The spread of malaria resistant
to artemisinin, the most important anti-malarial
drug, would be a regional and global disaster.
In the absence of state-supported health
infrastructure, local community-based organizations
are working to improve access to health services in
their own communities. These programs currently
have a target population of over 376,000 people in
eastern Burma and in 2009 treated nearly 40,000
cases of malaria and have vastly increased access
to key maternal and child health interventions.
However, they continue to be constrained by a lack
of resources and ongoing human rights abuses by
the Burmese military regime against civilians. In
order to fully address the urgent health needs of
eastern Burma, the underlying abuses fueling the
health crisis need to end."

Language:

Burmese, English, Thai

Source/publisher:

The Burma Medical Association, National Health and Education Committee, Back Pack Health Worker Team

This field report documents recent human rights abuses committed by SPDC soldiers against Karen villagers in Toungoo District. Villagers in SPDC-controlled areas continue to face heavy forced labour demands that severely constrain their livelihoods; some have had their livelihoods directly targeted in the form of attacks on their cardamom fields. In certain cases individuals have also been subjected to arbitrary detention and physical abuse by SPDC soldiers, typically on suspicion of having had contact with the KNU/KNLA after being caught in violation of stringent movement restrictions. Villagers living in or travelling to areas beyond SPDC control, meanwhile, continue to have their physical security threatened by SPDC patrols that practice a shoot-on-sight policy in such areas. This report covers incidents between January and April 2010.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Arbitrary Detention and Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances...2. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment...3. Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions...4. Landmines and Other Explosive Devices...5. Production and Trade of Illicit Drugs...6. Trafficking and Smuggling...7. Forced Labour and Forced Conscription...8. Deprivation of Livelihood...9. Environmental Degradation...10. Cyclone Nargis – From natural disaster to human catastrophe...11. Right to Health...12. Freedom of Belief and Religion...13. Freedom of Opinion, Expression and the Press...14. Freedom of Assembly, Association and Movement...15. Right to Education...16. Rights of the Child...17. The Rights of Women...18. Ethnic Minority Rights...19. Internal Displacement and Forced Relocation...20. The Situation of Refugees...21.The Situation of Migrant Workers...EACH OF THESE CHAPTERS CAN HE INDEPENDENTLY READ AND DOWNLOADED

"As the 2009 rainy season draws to a close, displaced villagers in northern Papun District's Lu Thaw
Township face little prospect of harvesting sufficient paddy to support them over the next year. After four
straight agricultural cycles disrupted by Burma Army patrols, which continue to shoot villagers on sight
and enforce travel and trade restrictions designed to limit sale of food to villagers in hiding, villagers in
northern Papun face food shortages more severe than anything to hit the area since the Burma Army
began attempts to consolidate control of the region in 1997. Consequently, the international donor
community should immediately provide emergency support to aid groups that can access IDP areas in Lu
Thaw Township. In southern Papun, meanwhile, villagers report ongoing abuses and increased activity
by the SPDC and DKBA in Dwe Loh and Bu Thoh townships. In these areas, villagers report abuses
including movement restrictions, forced labour, looting, increased placement of landmines in civilian
areas, summary executions and other forms of arbitrary abuse. This report documents abuses occurring
between May and October 2009..."

"Since the beginning of 2009, SPDC troops have patrolled areas near displaced hiding sites in Nyaunglebin District. These patrols prevent displaced villagers from cultivating their secret crops or otherwise accessing food, which in turn exacerbates food insecurity for these civilians. Despite such hardships, villagers have responded by cooperating with each other-often sharing food or helping each other cultivate crops and sell goods in 'jungle markets'. This report describes the situation of displaced villagers in Nyaunglebin District from December 2008 to March 2009..."

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "The military regime of Burma has been consistent in their inability and unwillingness to protect and provide for the people of Burma. Burma’s human rights record provides testimony of decades of widespread violations and abuses perpetrated largely at the hands of Burma’s military rulers and their agents against the Burmese people. Dissent is regularly silenced and opponents brutalized. In a country once known as the “rice-bowl of Asia,” Burma is now one of the poorest countries of Asia due to steady economic deterioration driven by the regime’s mismanagement. Many in Burma live without access to proper schools, healthcare facilities, reliable electricity, safe drinking water, and stable food supplies. Cowed by policies of extreme oppression and tactics of intimidation, life for much of the population in Burma is a struggle for daily survival. Add to that a natural disaster- and survival in Burma reaches a critical point. Western Burma’s Chin State is at such a point. Since 2006, the region has been plagued by a severe food crisis following a steep reduction in the local harvest and food production. The year 2006 marked the beginning of a new cycle of bamboo flowering, which occurs about every 50 years in the region, triggering an explosion in the population of rats and resulting in the destruction of crops. This has caused a severe shortage of food for local communities primarily dependent on subsistence farming through shifting cultivation. The phenomenon has been documented three times since 1862, and each past event ended in a disastrous famine for the communities in the area. Compounding the impending food crisis in Chin State due to the bamboo flowering is the continuation of severe human rights violations and repressive economic policies of the military regime, which serve to further undermine the livelihoods and food security of the Chin people. The use of unpaid civilian forced labour is widespread throughout Chin State, which consumes the time and energy of local farmers and reduces their crop yields. The regime also forcibly orders farmers to substitute their staple crops for other cash crops, and has confiscated thousands of acres of farmland from local farmers for tea and jatropha plantations. Meanwhile, arbitrary taxes and mandatory “donations” collected from Chin households by the Burmese authorities total up to as much 200,000 Kyats a year in major towns.2 This includes the unofficial collection of money from the Chin public by officials in various government departments at the local level to support such programs as tea and bio-fuel plantations; and extortion and confiscation of money, properties, and livestock by military units stationed at 33 locations across the state. The rising cost of living and skyrocketing food prices is also adding to the already dire humanitarian situation in Chin State. In the last four years, the price of rice has quintupled from 6,000 Kyats a bag in 2004 to as much as 30,000 Kyats today, an amount equivalent to the monthly salary of entry level public servants. The humanitarian consequences stemming from the dying bamboo and exacerbated by conditions imposed by the regime are enormous, and there are clear indications that unless urgent action is taken to address the crisis, the situation could soon turn into a large-scale catastrophe affecting all parts of Chin State. The hardest hit areas are in the southern townships of Matupi and Paletwa where bamboo grows heavily, but reports suggest that severe food shortages are a state-wide phenomenon with many villages in the northern townships of Tonzang and Thantlang, for example, having already run out of food supplies. Based on the latest field surveys conducted in the affected areas, Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) estimates that as many as 200 villages may be directly affected by severe food shortages associated with the bamboo flowering, and no less than 100, 000 people or 20 percent of the entire population of Chin State may be in need of immediate food aid.3 Food scarcity is more severe in remote areas, where families are being reduced to one meal a day or have nothing left to eat at all. CHRO recently visited four border villages in India’s Mizoram State where it found 93 families from 22 villages in Paletwa Township, Chin State who fled across the border in search of food.
To date, Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has done nothing positive to counter the food scarcity, nor has the SPDC provided any kind of help to communities affected by the food crisis. Repeated requests by affected communities for food aid were denied, even as 100,000 metric tonnes of rice was exported to Sri Lanka.4 Rather, Burma Army soldiers have seized food aid donated by private donors and church groups.5 In contrast to the situation in Burma, India’s Mizoram and Manipur States, both adjacent to Chin State, are facing a similar food crisis related to the bamboo flowering, and have received millions of dollars in aid from the central government as well as international aid agencies, including USAID of the United States government, to support emergency programs to combat and manage the food crisis.6
In early May, when Cyclone Nargis ripped through lower Burma and the Irrawaddy delta destroying entire regions of land and leaving thousands homeless, hungry, and helpless, the regime clearly demonstrated their complete indifference to the plight of the Burmese people. In response to this natural disaster, they did shamefully little to ease the suffering of the victims and much to hamper relief efforts. As a result, the people of Burma paid a heavy price in the loss of life and continue to struggle under a regime that fails to protect or provide for its people. As another natural disaster unfolds in western Burma without hope of internal protections or provisions, the Chin people, like the cyclone victims, will be sure to pay a heavy toll unless action is taken immediately.
The critical point for action is now."

"Villagers in northern Pa'an District of central Karen State say their livelihoods are under serious threat due to exploitation by SPDC military authorities and by their Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) allies who rule as an SPDC proxy army in much of the region. Villages in the vicinity of the DKBA headquarters are forced to give much of their time and resources to support the headquarters complex, while villages directly under SPDC control face rape, arbitrary detention and threats to keep them compliant with SPDC demands. The SPDC plans to expand Dta Greh (a.k.a. Pain Kyone) village into a town in order to strengthen its administrative control over the area, and is confiscating about half of the village's productive land without compensation to build infrastructure which includes offices, army camps and a hydroelectric power dam - destroying the livelihoods of close to 100 farming families. Local villagers, who are already struggling to survive under the weight of existing demands, fear further forced labour and extortion as the project continues."

"This report consists of an Introduction and Executive Summary, followed by a detailed analysis of the situation supported by quotes from interviews and excerpts from SPDC order documents sent to villages in the region. As mentioned above, an Annex to this report containing the full text of the remaining interviews can be seen by following the link from the table of contents or from KHRG upon approved request..."
Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District

"In Toungoo District between November 2011 and February 2012 villagers in both Than Daung and Tantabin Townships have faced regular and ongoing demands for forced labour, as well movement and trade restrictions, which consistently undermine their ability to support themselves. During the last few months, the Tatmadaw has demanded villagers to support road-building activities by providing trucks and motorcycles to send food and materials, to drive in front of bulldozers in potentially-landmined areas, to clean brush, dig and flatten land during road-building, and to transport rations during MOC #9 resupply operations as recently as February 7th 2012."

"This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during March 2011 in Bu Tho Township, Papun District, by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw H---, a 34-year-old hillfield farmer and the head of N--- village. Saw H--- described an incident in which a 23-year-old villager stepped on and was killed by a landmine at the beginning of 2011, at the time when he, Saw H--- and three other villagers were returning to N--- after serving as unpaid porters for Border Guard soldiers based at Meh Bpa. Saw H--- also detailed demands for the collection and provision of bamboo poles for construction of soldiers’ houses at Gk’Ter Tee, as well as the payment of 400,000 kyat ((US $ 519.48) in lieu of the provision of porters to Maung Chit, Commander of Border Guard Battalion #1013, by villages in Meh Mweh village tract. These payments were described in the previous KHRG report "Papun Situation Update: Bu Tho Township, April 2011." Saw H--- also described demands for the provision of a pig to Border Guard soldiers three days before this interview took place and the beating of a villager by DKBA soldiers in 2010. He noted the ways in which movement restrictions that prevent villagers from travelling on rivers and sleeping in or bringing food to their farm huts negatively impact harvests and food security. Saw H--- explained that villagers respond to such concerns by sharing food amongst themselves, refusing to comply with forced labour demands, and cultivating relationships with non-state armed groups to learn the areas in which landmines have been planted."

"This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during August 2011 by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw T---, a 74 year-old Buddhist village head who described the planting of what he estimated to be about 100 landmines by government and non-state armed groups in the vicinity of his village. Saw T--- related ongoing instances of forced labour, specifically villagers forced to guide troops, porter military supplies and sweep for landmines, and described an incident in which two villagers stepped on landmines whilst being forced to serve as unpaid porters for Tatmadaw troops. He described a separate incident in which another villager stepped on and was killed by a landmine whilst fleeing from Border Guard soldiers who were attempting to force him to porter for one month. In both cases, victims' families received no compensation or opportunity for redress following their deaths. Saw T--- noted that landmines planted in agricultural areas have not been removed, rendering several hill fields unsafe to farm and resulting in the abandonment of crops. He illustrated the danger to villagers who travel to their agricultural workplaces by recounting an incident in which a villager's buffalo was injured by a landmine. He further explained that villagers' livelihoods have been additionally undermined by frequent demands for food and by looting of villagers' food and animals. Saw T--- highlighted the fact that demands are backed by explicit threats of violence, recounting an instance when he was threatened for failing to comply quicky by a Tatmadaw officer who held a gun to his head. Saw T--- noted that villagers have responded to negative impacts on their food production capacity by performing job for daily wages and sharing food with others and, in response to the lack of health facilities in their community, travel over two hours by foot to the nearest clinic in another village."

"This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during April 2011 in Pa’an Township, Thaton District by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Daw Ny---, who described an incident which occurred in November 2010, during which Tatmadaw Border Guard soldiers fired small-arms at her husband without warning and without attempting to hail him, seriously injuring his leg and necessitating 3,800,000 kyat [US $4,935.06] in medical expenses, which has had a deleterious effect on her family’s financial situation. Daw Ny--- told the villager who conducted this interview that her husband was visited in hospital by government officials investigating the incident but that no compensation or redress was offered. Daw Ny--- also described arbitrary demands for food and money, and the illegal logging of teak trees from A--- village by Border Guard soldiers; she mentioned that the imbalance in local power dynamics between armed soldiers and unarmed villagers deters villagers from attempting to engage and negotiate with perpetrators. Daw Ny--- raised concerns about the lack of livelihoods opportunities, and corresponding food insecurity, for villagers who do not own farmland; she notes that, in spite of these challenges, villagers offer voluntary material support to schoolteachers and often attempt to support their livelihoods by selling firewood or cutting bamboo. Daw Ny--- notes that some villagers choose to seek employment opportunities in larger towns but strongly expresses her unwillingness to move to an urban area, believing that food insecurity would only be exacerbated by a lack of money and an absence of alternative livelihood opportunities."

"This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in August 2011 by a villager describing ongoing abuses occurring in Thaton Township in 2011, including frequent demands for forced labour from six villages, for villagers to serve as guards at a Tatmadaw LIB #218 camp, and for payments in lieu of forced labour. It outlines some difficulties faced by civilians in pursuit of their livelihoods, including the negative impact of forced labour demands, the lack of employment options available for villagers attempting to support their families and the destruction of paddy crops caused by flooding during the 2011 monsoon. It details restrictions on access to healthcare, specifically the high cost of medical treatment at government clinics and the denial of access for healthcare groups, and also expresses villagers’ frustrations at obstacles to children’s education caused by the need for children to work to support their families and the prohibitive costs of school attendance and supplies."

"This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in November 2011 by a villager living in a hiding site in northern Lu Thaw Township, Papun District. The villager described an incident that occurred in October 2011 in which Tatmadaw soldiers fired six mortar shells into an area in which civilians are actively seeking to avoid attacks by Tatmadaw troops; no one was killed or injured during the attack. This situation update places the occurrence of such incidents in the context of the repeated and prolonged displacement of villagers in northern Luthaw who continue to actively seek to avoid contact with government troops due to ongoing attacks against civilian objects. The villager who wrote this report raised concerns about food shortages in hiding site areas where the presence of Tatmadaw soldiers proximate to previously cultivated land has resulted in overcrowding on available farmland and the subsequent degradation of soil quality, severely limiting villagers' abilities to support themselves using traditional rotational cropping methods. For detailed analysis of the humanitarian situation in this area of Luthaw Township, see the previous KHRG report Acute food shortages threatening 8,885 villagers in 118 villages across northern Papun District, published in April 2011."

"In September 2011, residents of Je--- village, Kawkareik Township told KHRG that they feared soldiers under Tatmadaw Border Guard Battalion #1022 and LIBs #355 and #546 would soon complete the confiscation of approximately 500 acres of land in their community in order to develop a large camp for Battalion #1022 and homes for soldiers' families. According to the villagers, the area has already been surveyed and the Je--- village head has informed local plantation and paddy farm owners whose lands are to be confiscated. The villagers reported that approximately 167 acres of agricultural land, including seven rubber plantations, nine paddy farms, and seventeen betelnut and durian plantations belonging to 26 residents of Je--- have already been surveyed, although they expressed concern that more land would be expropriated in the future. The Je--- residents said that the village head had told them rubber plantation owners would be compensated according to the number of trees they owned, but that the villagers were collectively refusing compensation and avoiding attending a meeting at which they worried they would be ordered to sign over their land. The villagers that spoke with KHRG said they believed the Tatmadaw intended to take over their land in October after the end of the annual monsoon, and that this would seriously undermine livelihoods in a community in which many villagers depended on subsistence agriculture on established land. This bulletin is based on information collected by KHRG researchers in September and October 2011, including five interviews with residents of Je--- village, 91 photographs of the area, and a written record of lands earmarked for confiscation."

"This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in August 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Toungoo District between May and July 2011. It describes a series of trade and movement restrictions imposed on villagers in June and July 2011, due to frequent clashes between Tatmadaw and non-state armed groups, and road closures between Toungoo Town and Buh Sah Kee. The report also examines in detail the serious impacts the road closures have had on the livelihoods of villagers who have been unable to support themselves by transporting and selling agricultural produce and purchasing rice supplies as usual. The report further describes incidents of human rights abuse by Tatmadaw forces, including the summary execution of two civilians in July 2011 by soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #379; forced labour including the portering of military supplies, the production and supply of building materials, guide duty and sweeping for landmines; and an attack on a village previously reported by KHRG and the subsequent destruction of villagers' homes and food stores."

"This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted prior to Burma's November 2010 elections in Te Naw Th’Ri Township, Tenasserim Division by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw C---, a 30-year-old married hill field farmer who told KHRG that he was appointed to the position of village head by his local VPDC in an area of Te Naw Th’Ri Township that is frequently accessed by Tatmadaw troops, and in which there is no KNLA presence. Saw C--- described human rights abuses faced by residents of his village, including: demands for forced labour; theft and looting of villagers' property; and movement restrictions that prevent villagers from accessing agricultural workplaces. He also cited an incident in which a villager was shot and killed by Tatmadaw soldiers while fishing in a nearby river, and his death subsequently concealed; and recounted abuses he witnessed when forced to porter military rations and accompany Tatmadaw soldiers during foot patrols, including the theft and looting of villagers’ property and the rape of a 50-year-old woman. Saw C--- told KHRG that villagers protect themselves in the following ways: collecting flowers from the jungle to sell in local markets in order to supplement incomes, failing to comply with orders to report to a Tatmadaw camp, and using traditional herbal remedies due to difficulties accessing healthcare. He noted, however, that these strategies can be limited, for example by threats of violence against civilians by Tatmadaw soldiers or scarcity of plants commonly used in herbal remedies."

"Villagers in Te Naw Th'Ri Township, Tenasserim Division face human rights abuses and threats to their livelihoods, attendant to increasing militarization of the area following widespread forced relocation campaigns in the late 1990s. Efforts to support and strengthen Tatmadaw presence throughout Te Naw Th'Ri have resulted in practices that facilitate control over the civilian population and extract material and labour resources while at the same time preventing non-state armed groups from operating or extracting resources of their own. Villagers who seek to evade military control and associated human rights abuses, meanwhile, report Tatmadaw attacks on civilians and civilian livelihoods in upland hiding areas. This report draws primarily on information received between September 2009 and November 2010 from Te Naw Th'Ri Township, Tenasserim Division."

"As the 2009 rainy season draws to a close, displaced villagers in northern Papun District's Lu Thaw
Township face little prospect of harvesting sufficient paddy to support them over the next year. After four
straight agricultural cycles disrupted by Burma Army patrols, which continue to shoot villagers on sight
and enforce travel and trade restrictions designed to limit sale of food to villagers in hiding, villagers in
northern Papun face food shortages more severe than anything to hit the area since the Burma Army
began attempts to consolidate control of the region in 1997. Consequently, the international donor
community should immediately provide emergency support to aid groups that can access IDP areas in Lu
Thaw Township. In southern Papun, meanwhile, villagers report ongoing abuses and increased activity
by the SPDC and DKBA in Dwe Loh and Bu Thoh townships. In these areas, villagers report abuses
including movement restrictions, forced labour, looting, increased placement of landmines in civilian
areas, summary executions and other forms of arbitrary abuse. This report documents abuses occurring
between May and October 2009..."

"This report documents the situation for villagers in Toungoo District, both in areas under SPDC control and in areas contested by the KNLA and home to villagers actively evading SDPC control. For villagers in the former, movement restrictions, forced labour and demands for material support continue unabated, and continue to undermine their attempts to address basic needs. Villagers in hiding, meanwhile, report that the threat of Burma Army patrols, though slightly reduced, remains sufficient to disrupt farming and undermine food security. This report includes incidents occurring from January to August 2009..."

"This report presents information on abuses in Nyaunglebin District for the period of April to July 2009. Though Nyaunglebin saw a reduction in SPDC activities during the first six months of 2009, patrols resumed in July. Since then, IDP villagers attempting to evade SPDC control report that they have subsequently been unable to regularly access farm fields or gardens, exacerbating cycles of food shortages set in motion by the northern Karen State offensive which began in 2006. Other villagers, from the only nominally controlled villages in the Nyaunglebin's eastern hills to SPDC-administered relocation sites in the west, meanwhile, report abuses including forced labour, conscription into government militia, travel restrictions and the torture of two village leaders for alleged contact with the KNLA..."

"This report includes translated copies of 75 order documents issued by Burma Army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army officers to village heads in Karen State between August 2008 and June 2009. These documents serve as supplementary evidence of ongoing exploitative local governance in rural Burma. The report thus supports the continuing testimonies of villagers regarding the regular demands for labour, money, food and other supplies to which their communities are subject by local military forces. The order documents collected here include demands for attendance at meetings; the provision of money and alcohol; the production and delivery of thatch shingles and bamboo poles; forced labour as messengers and porters for the military; forced labour on road repair; the provision of information on individuals and households; registration of villagers in State-controlled 'NGOs'; and restrictions on travel and the use of muskets. In almost all cases, such demands are uncompensated and backed by an implicit threat of violence or other punishment for non-compliance. Almost all demands articulated in the orders presented in this report involve some element of forced labour in their implementation..."

"This paper examines repression and state–society conflict in Burma through the
lens of rural and urban resistance strategies. It explores networks of
noncompliance through which civilians evade and undermine state control over
their lives, showing that the military regime’s brutal tactics represent not control,
but a lack of control. Outside agencies ignore this state–society struggle over
sovereignty at their peril: ignoring the interplay of interventions with local politics
and militarisation, and claiming a ‘humanitarian neutrality’ which is impossible in
practice, risks undermining the very civilians interventions are supposed to help,
while facilitating further state repression. Greater honesty and awareness in
interventions is required, combined with greater solidarity with villagers’
resistance strategies."...
Keywords: peasant resistance; humanitarian policy; Karen; Kayin; Burma;
Myanmar

"International reporting of the large-scale migration of those leaving Burma in search of work abroad has highlighted the perils for migrant during travel and in host countries. However, there has been a lack of research in the root causes of this migration. Identifying the root causes of migration has important implications for the assistance and protection of these migrants. Drawing on over 150 interviews with villagers in rural Burma and those from Burma who have sought employment abroad, this report identifies the exploitative abuse underpinning poverty and livelihoods vulnerability in Burma which, in turn, are major factors motivating individuals to leave home and seek work abroad..."
_Thailand-based interviewees explained to KHRG how exploitative abuses increased poverty, livelihoods vulnerability and food insecurity for themselves and their communities in Burma. These issues were in turn cited as central push factors compelling them to leave their homes and search for work abroad. In some cases, interviewees explained that the harmful effects of exploitative abuse were compounded by environmental and economic factors such as flood and drought and limited access to decent wage labour.[17]
While the individuals interviewed by KHRG in Thailand would normally be classified as 'economic migrants', the factors which they cited as motivating their choice to migrate make it clear that SPDC abuse made it difficult for them to survive in their home areas. Hence, these people decided to become migrants not simply because they were lured to Thailand by economic incentives, but because they found it impossible to survive at home in Burma. Clearly, the distinction between push and pull factors is blurred in the case of Burmese migrants.
The concept of pull factors for migrants is further complicated because migrants are not merely seeking better jobs abroad, but are instead pulled to places like Thailand and Malaysia in order to access protection. For refugees and IDPs, protection is a service that is often provided by government bodies, UN agencies and international NGOs. For refugees in particular, protection is often primarily understood to mean legal protection against refoulement - defined as the expulsion of a person to a place where they would face persecution. Beyond legal protection against refoulement, aid agencies have implemented specific forms of rights-based assistance, such as gender-based violence programmes, as part of their protection mandates.
However, for migrants from Burma the act of leaving home is overwhelmingly a self-initiated protection strategy through which individuals can ensure their and their families' basic survival in the face of persistent exploitative and other abuse in their home areas. This broader understanding of protection goes beyond legal protection against refoulement and the top-down delivery of rights-based assistance by aid agencies. It involves actions taken by individuals on their own accord to lessen or avoid abuse and its harmful effects at home.[18]
KHRG has chosen to use the term self-initiated protection strategy, rather than a more generic concept like 'survival strategy', in order to highlight the political agency of those who choose such migration. By seeing this protection in political terms, one can better understand both the abusive underpinnings of migration from Burma as well as the relevance of such migration to the protection mandates of governments, UN agencies and international NGOs currently providing support to conventional refugee populations. Understanding protection in this way presents opportunities for external support for the many self-initiated protection strategies (including efforts to secure employment without exploitation, support dependent family members, enrol children in school and avoid arrest, extortion and deportation) which migrant workers regularly use._

Systematic militarisation and widespread exploitation of the civilian population by military forces have created poverty, malnutrition and a severe food crisis in Karen State and other parts of rural Burma. This crisis requires urgent attention by the international community - with intervention shaped by the concerns of villagers themselves. This briefer outlines the human rights abuses which have caused the food crisis; the combined impacts of these abuses upon civilian communities; the ways in which villagers have responded to and resisted abuse; and the actions that can be taken by the international community to alleviate the current crisis and to prevent future cycles of abuse and malnutrition in rural Burma.

"SPDC troops have continued to target internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Toungoo District. Civilians continue be killed or injured by the attacks while many of the survivors flee their homes and take shelter in forest hiding sites. Some who have moved into SPDC forced relocation sites continue to secretly return to their villages to cultivate their crops, constantly risking punishment or execution by troops patrolling the areas. The SPDC's repeated disruption of regular planting cycles has created a food crisis in Toungoo, further endangering the IDPs living there. This report examines the abuses in Toungoo District from April to June 2008..."

"The months of November and December which follow the annual cessation of the rainy season mark the traditional harvest time for the agrarian communities of Karen State when villagers must venture out into their fields in order to reap their ripe paddy crops. Across large areas of Toungoo District, however, where the SPDC lacks a consolidated hold on the civilian population, this time of year has become especially perilous as the Army enforces sweeping movement restrictions backed up by a shoot on sight policy in order to eradicate the entire civilian presence in areas outside its control and restrict the population to military-controlled villages and relocation sites where they can be more easily exploited for labour, money, food and other supplies. Displaced communities in hiding thus risk potential arrest and execution by venturing out into the relatively open area of their hill side agricultural fields where they are more easily spotted by SPDC troops who regularly patrol the area. Yet, because of the Army's persistent attacks against covert farm fields, food stores and displaced communities in hiding these villagers confront a severe food shortage which has increased pressure on them to tend to their covert fields despite the risks. As a consequence some villagers have already lost their lives; having been shot by SPDC soldiers while attempting to tend their crops and address their community's rising food insecurity..."

"Throughout SPDC-controlled areas of Karen State the regime has been developing civilian agencies as extensions of military authority. On top of this, the junta has continued to strengthen the more traditional forms of militarisation and, at least in Thaton District, has firmly backed the expansion of DKBA military operations to control the civilian population and eradicate KNLA forces which continue to actively patrol the area. The people of Thaton District thus face a myriad of State agencies and armed groups which have overburdened them with demands for labour, money and supplies. While engaging with these groups, addressing the demands placed on them and attending to their own livelihoods, local villagers have sought to manage a delicate balance of seemingly impossible weights..."

"The attacks against civilians continue as the SPDC increases its military build-up in Toungoo District. Enforcing widespread restrictions on movement backed up by a shoot-on-sight policy, the SPDC has executed at least 38 villagers in Toungoo since January 2007. On top of this, local villagers face the ever present danger of landmines, many of which were manufactured in China, which the Army has deployed around homes, churches and forest paths. Combined with the destruction of covert agricultural hill fields and rice supplies, these attacks seek to undermine food security and make life unbearable in areas outside of consolidated military control. However, as those living under SPDC rule have found, the constant stream of military demands for labour, money and other supplies undermine livelihoods, village economies and community efforts to address health, education and social needs. Civilians in Toungoo must therefore choose between a situation of impoverishment and subjugation under SPDC rule, evasion in forested hiding sites with the constant threat of military attack, or a relatively stable yet uprooted life in refugee camps away from their homeland. This report documents just some of the human rights abuses perpetrated by SPDC forces against villagers in Toungoo District up to July 2007..."

"As the principal means of establishing control over the people of Thaton District, the SPDC has supported a more aggressive DKBA role in the area. With the junta's political, military and financial backing the DKBA has sought to expand its numbers, strengthen its position vis-à-vis the civilian population and eradicate the remaining KNU/KNLA presence in the region. To those ends, the DKBA has used forced labour, looting, extortion, land confiscation and movement restrictions and embarked on a hostile campaign of forced recruitment from amongst the local population. These abuses have eroded village livelihoods, leading to low harvest yields and wholly failed crops; problems which compound over time and progressively deepen poverty and malnourishment. With the onset of the rainy season and the 2007 cultivation period, villagers in Thaton District are faced with depleting provisions. This food insecurity will require that many harvest their 2007 crop as early as October while still unripe. The low yield of an early harvest, lost time spent on forced labour and the harmful fallout of further extortion and other abuses will all combine to ensure once again that villagers in Thaton District confront food shortages and increasing poverty..."

"The first half of 2007 has seen the continued flight of civilians from their homes and land in response to ongoing State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military operations in Toungoo District. While in some cases this displacement is prompted by direct military attacks against their villages, many civilians living in Toungoo District have told KHRG that the primary catalyst for relocation has been the regular demands for labour, money and supplies and the restrictions on movement and trade imposed by SPDC forces. These everyday abuses combine over time to effectively undermine civilian livelihoods, exacerbate poverty and make subsistence untenable. Villagers threatened with such demands and restrictions frequently choose displacement in response - initially to forest hiding sites located nearby and then farther afield to larger Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps or across the border to Thailand-based refugee camps. This report presents accounts of ongoing abuses in Toungoo District committed by SPDC forces during the period of January to May 2007 and their role in motivating local villagers to respond with flight and displacement..."

"With the onset of the cold season the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) has been able to push ahead with military attacks against villages and displaced communities in the northern districts of Karen State. In Thaton District and other areas further south, however, the military is more firmly in control, fewer displaced communities are able to remain in hiding, and SPDC rule is facilitated by the presence of its ally the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA). By increasingly relying on DKBA forces to administer Thaton, the SPDC has been able to free up soldiers and resources which can then be deployed elsewhere. To force the civilian population into submission, the DKBA has scoured villages throughout Thaton - detaining, interrogating and torturing villagers and conscripting them to serve as army porters. Commensurate with its increased control over the civilian population, DKBA soldiers have subjected villagers to regular extortion, arbitrary and excessive 'taxation', forced labour, land confiscation and restrictions on movement, trade and education which all serve to support ongoing military rule in Thaton. By systematising control over local villagers, the SPDC and DKBA have been able to implement 'development' projects that financially benefit and further entrench the military hierarchy. Amongst such initiatives, the construction in Thaton District of the United Nations-supported Asian Highway, connecting Burma with neighbouring countries, has involved uncompensated land confiscation and forced labour..."

"This report consists of an Introduction and Executive Summary, followed by a detailed analysis of the situation supported by quotes from interviews and excerpts from SPDC order documents sent to villages in the region. As mentioned above, an Annex to this report containing the full text of the remaining interviews can be seen by following the link from the table of contents or from KHRG upon approved request..."
Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District

This document presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity
and Militarization in Burma. The Tribunal’s work will appeal to all readers interested in human rights and social
justice, as well as anyone with a particular interest in Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission presents this
report in order to stimulate discourse on human rights and democratization in Burma and around the world.

"..."Things are getting more difficult every day. Even the Burmese leaders capture each other and put each other in jail. If they can capture and imprison even the people who have authority, then how are the villagers supposed to tolerate them? That’s why the villagers are fleeing from Burma." - Dta La Ku elder (M, 44) from Dooplaya district (Report #98-09)
There is no doubt that life is currently becoming worse for the vast majority of people in Burma, in both urban and rural areas. In urban areas, people are plagued by high inflation, rapidly increasing prices for basic commodities such as rice and basic foodstuffs, the tumbling value of the Kyat, wages which are not enough to feed oneself, corruption by all arms of the military and civil service, and the ever-present fear of arbitrary arrest for the slightest act or statement that betrays opposition to the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) junta..."

This Handbook is designed for both farmers and students to use in the field and during training. It is divided into eight sections, each one containing several topics and all illustrated with large clear pictures. The Handbook can be read from beginning to end or each topic can be read separately. Space is provided for readers to take notes and to add their own local knowledge...Our people have always been farmers. Farmers of the river lands, of the mountains, and of the forests. Due to civil war in Burma, more and more of us have migrated from our native lands and many now live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border. The Royal Thai Government, its citizens, and non-government organisations have been very generous in their support to us. We have food, shelter, health care and education, and for this we are very thankful. But while we have been living in refugee camps we have slowly been losing our heritage, our wisdom, and our ways. For our children, rice comes from a warehouse, not grown on our own land by our own hands. In 1999, I asked the organisations that were already supporting us if they could help me look for ways to teach our children about agriculture and to help us live more self-sufficiently. The result of this is now called the CAN Project (Community Agriculture and Nutrition). This Handbook is the latest step in its ongoing development over 7 years with refugees and internally displaced people along the Thai-Burma border. There are many good books and resources on sustainable agriculture and we have learnt much from them. However refugees are constrained in their agricultural practices due to limited access to land, water and other resources. This Handbook attempts to present a summary of simple adaptations of ideas found in other books, manuals and resources on sustainable agriculture. This Handbook is not a textbook as such, but a compilation of different subjects for people to pick and choose. We know that it is not complete and I would ask anyone with ideas or suggestions to forward them so we can keep on learning. In the year 2000 I wrote a draft CAN Handbook. Then Jacob Thomson and I wrote the first CAN curriculum in 2001. Since then it has been used in training with nearly 5,000 school children, teachers, villagers, and staff of community-based and non-government organisations. Needless to say, since the first curriculum was drafted, we have had many experiences, learnt many lessons and made many changes.

This Handbook is designed for both farmers and students to use in the field and
during training. It is divided into eight sections, each one containing several
topics and all illustrated with large clear pictures. The Handbook can be read
from beginning to end or each topic can be read separately. Space is provided
for readers to take notes and to add their own local knowledge...Our people have always been farmers. Farmers of the river lands, of the
mountains, and of the forests. Due to civil war in Burma, more and more of
us have migrated from our native lands and many now live in refugee camps
along the Thai-Burmese border.
The Royal Thai Government, its citizens, and non-government organisations
have been very generous in their support to us. We have food, shelter, health
care and education, and for this we are very thankful. But while we have been
living in refugee camps we have slowly been losing our heritage, our wisdom,
and our ways. For our children, rice comes from a warehouse, not grown on
our own land by our own hands.
In 1999, I asked the organisations that were already supporting us if they
could help me look for ways to teach our children about agriculture and to
help us live more self-sufficiently. The result of this is now called the CAN
Project (Community Agriculture and Nutrition). This Handbook is the latest
step in its ongoing development over 7 years with refugees and internally
displaced people along the Thai-Burma border.
There are many good books and resources on sustainable agriculture and
we have learnt much from them. However refugees are constrained in their
agricultural practices due to limited access to land, water and other resources.
This Handbook attempts to present a summary of simple adaptations of ideas
found in other books, manuals and resources on sustainable agriculture.
This Handbook is not a textbook as such, but a compilation of different
subjects for people to pick and choose. We know that it is not complete and
I would ask anyone with ideas or suggestions to forward them so we can
keep on learning. In the year 2000 I wrote a draft CAN Handbook. Then Jacob
Thomson and I wrote the first CAN curriculum in 2001. Since then it has
been used in training with nearly 5,000 school children, teachers, villagers,
and staff of community-based and non-government organisations. Needless
to say, since the first curriculum was drafted, we have had many experiences,
learnt many lessons and made many changes.

General Health:
Underlying causes of malnutrition --
Why health workers should feel concerned by nutritional issues? Misconceptions Concerning Nutrition: Voices of Community Health Educators and TBAs along the Thai-Burmese Border;
Micronutrients: The Hidden Hunger; Iron Deficiency Anaemia; The Vicious Circle of Malnutrition and Infection;
Treatment: IDENTIFYING MALNUTRITION; MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE SEVERE MALNUTRITION;
GROWTH MONITORING: THE BEST PREVENTION;
Fortified Flour for Refugees living in the camp;
Making Blended Flour at Local Level;
The example of MISOLA Flour in Africa.
Health Education: Pregnancy and Nutrition;
Breastfeeding;
WHEN RICE SOUP IS NOT ENOUGH:
First Foods - the Key to Optimal Growth and Development;
BUILDING A BALANCED DIET FOR GOOD HEALTH;
From the Field:
How Sanetun became a malnourished child?

"Myanmar has a policy of promoting food and nutrition security and, at the national level, food production is
more than that required to meet the country’s needs. Nevertheless, food and nutrition surveillance has revealed
that malnutrition still exists in the country, despite economic growth and national food self-sufficiency. The
National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition, formulated in 1994 and adopted in 1995, accorded priority to
household food and nutrition security. Accordingly, in 1996, in partnership with the World Health Organization
(WHO), the National Nutrition Centre embarked on a study of household food and nutrition security in
Myanmar. A preliminary situation analysis revealed that transitional changes in the economic, demographic and
social sectors have driven dramatic changes in people’s lifestyles, behaviour and practices and that these
changes affect food and nutrition security. The present paper explores household and intrahousehold
determinants of nutrition problems in Myanmar.".....Results
Preliminary descriptive analysis demonstrated more acute
malnutrition in the urban area than in the rural area for both
the pre- and post-harvest periods. Furthermore, nutritional
problems were more acute in both the urban and rural areas
during the preharvest period than during the post-harvest
period. Urban children consumed fewer calories than rural
children during both the pre- and post-harvest times, while
children in both rural and urban areas consumed fewer
calories during the preharvest period than during the postharvest
period, although all the differences were not statistically
significant......Keywords: care of the vulnerable, food security, malnutrition, Myanmar, National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition.

"...This study will examine the food (rice) availability at the national level using the official and FAO data. Second, a case study in the rice deficit region (Dry Zone) will present the characteristics and food security status of the farm and non-farm rural households (landless) and the determinants of food security. The Dry Zone was chosen to study because the EC & FAO (2007) classified this region as the most vulnerable area of the country. Furthermore, the FAO projected that the Net Primary Production would be decreased significantly in the Dry Zone in the next two decades. It is essential to collect the primary and secondary data on food availability, access, stability and utilization for understanding the current reality of food security at both macro and micro level...
Objectives of the Study:
> To assess the food (rice) availability at the national level by using indicators of trend of production index, growth rate of sown area, production and yield, average availability of rice, average per capita rice consumption, rice surplus, dietary energy supply of rice, share of food expenditure in total budget, self-sufficiency ratio, trends in domestic prices of rice and the estimated effects of the Nargis cyclone on rice self-sufficiency.
> To investigate the rural household's access to food in terms of human capital, food production, household income, asset ownership, and income diversification of farm and non-farm (landless) households.
> To examine the farm and non-farm household's food security status by applying the national food poverty line and the index of coping strategies method along with some indicators such as food share in the household budget, percentage of food expenditure in the total household income, and nutrition security indicators of access to safe drinking water, sanitation, diseases, and number of children death.

"According to recent reports received by KHRG from residents of the Irrawaddy Delta, the SPDC has not only been restricting aid supplies and access by international humanitarian workers, but has also been doing so on the basis of ethnicity. Increasing reports on the military's restrictions and misappropriation of aid supplies necessitate immediate international investigation, as all affected residents of the delta regardless of their ethnicity remain in urgent need humanitarian assistance. The regime's obstructions of humanitarian aid increasingly appear to fall under the criteria of crimes against humanity. In such a case, the responsibility to protect this population falls on the international community..."

"Burma's dramatic turn-around from 'axis of evil' to western darling in the past year has been imagined as Asia's 'final frontier' for global finance institutions, markets and capital. Burma's agrarian landscape is home to three-fourths of the country's total population which is now being constructed as a potential prime investment sink for domestic and international agribusiness. The Global North's development aid industry and IFIs operating in Burma has consequently repositioned itself to proactively shape a pro-business legal environment to decrease political and economic risks to enable global finance capital to more securely enter Burma's markets, especially in agribusiness. But global capitalisms are made in localized places - places that make and are made from embedded social relations. This paper uncovers how regional political histories that are defined by very particular racial and geographical undertones give shape to Burma's emerging agro-industrial complex. The country's still smoldering ethnic civil war and fragile untested liberal democracy is additionally being overlain with an emerging war on food sovereignty. A discursive and material struggle over land is taking shape to convert subsistence agricultural landscapes and localized food production into modern, mechanized industrial agro-food regimes. This second agrarian transformation is being fought over between a growing alliance among the western development aid and IFI industries, global finance capital, and a solidifying Burmese military-private capitalist class against smallholder farmers who work and live on the country's now most valuable asset - land. Grassroots resistances increasingly confront the elite capitalist class' attempts to corporatize food production through the state's rule of law and police force. Farmers, meanwhile, are actively developing their own shared vision of food sovereignty and pro-poor land reform that desires greater attention....
Food Sovereignty: a critical dialogue, 14 - 15 September, New Haven.

Conclusion: "Most relevant reports and surveys I have been able to access state essentially that people from all parts of Burma leave home either in obedience to a direct relocation order from the military or civil authorities or as a result of a process whereby coercive measures imposed by the authorities play a major role in forcing down household incomes to the point where the family cannot survive. At this point, leaving home may seem to be the only option. These factors, which include direct forced relocation, forced labour, extortion and land confiscation, operate in, are affected by and exacerbate a situation of widespread poverty, rising inflation and declining real incomes. In other words, people leave home due to a combination of coercive and economic factors. One has to consider the whole process leading to displacement rather than a single, immediate cause. Where coercive measures, as described in this article, are involved, the resulting population movement falls under the Guiding Principles even if the situation that actually triggers movement, frequently food insecurity, may also be described in economic terms."

This report is a preliminary exploration of forced migration/internal displacement in Burma/Myanmar in two main areas. The first is the status in terms of international standards, specifically those embodied in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, of the people who leave home not because of conflict or relocation orders, but as a result of a range of coercive measures which drive down incomes to the point that the household economy collapses and people have no choice but to leave home. Some analysts describe this form of population movement as "economic migration" since it has an economic dimension. The present report, however, looks at the coercive nature of the pressures which contribute to the collapse of the household economy and argues that their compulsory and irresistible nature brings this kind of population movement squarely into the field of forced migration, even though the immediate cause of leaving home may also be described in economic terms...
The second area is geographic. The report looks at those parts of Burma not covered by the IDP Surveys of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which concentrate on the conflict and post-conflict areas of Eastern Burma. It hardly touches on conflict-induced displacement since most parts of Burma covered in these pages, including the major cities, are government-controlled, and there is little overt military conflict in these States and Divisions. Within these parts of the country, the report looks at the coercive measures referred to above. It also carries reports of direct relocation by government agents through which whole rural and urban communities are removed from their homes and either ordered to go to specific places, or else left to their own devices. The report annexes contain more than 500 pages of documentation on forced displacement and causes of displacement in Arakan, Chin, Kachin and Eastern and Northern Shan States as well as Irrawaddy, Magwe, Mandalay, West Pegu, Rangoon and Sagaing Divisions. It also has a section on displacement within urban and peri-urban areas.

Released on March 30, 2005...
This bulletin examines the factors causing many villagers in Pa'an district to say that they now face a deepening food and money shortage crisis which is threatening their health and survival. Based on villagers' testimony, the main factors appear to be recurring forced labour for both SPDC and DKBA authorities, made worse in some areas by orders for farmers to double-crop on their land and the encroachment of new SPDC military bases on villages and farmland.

Abstract:
"This paper looks at the case of Myanmar in order to investigate the behavior and welfare of
rural households in an economy under transition from a planned to a market system. Myanmar's
case is particularly interesting because of the country's unique attempt to preserve a policy of
intervention in land transactions and marketing institutions. A sample household survey that we
conducted in 2001, covering more than 500 households in eight villages with diverse
agro-ecological environments, revealed two paradoxes. First, income levels are higher in
villages far from the center than in villages located in regions under the tight control of the
central authorities. Second, farmers and villages that emphasize a paddy-based, irrigated
cropping system have lower farming incomes than those that do not. The reason for these
paradoxes are the distortions created by agricultural policies that restrict land use and the
marketing of agricultural produce. Because of these distortions, the transition to a market
economy in Myanmar since the late 1980s is only a partial one. The partial transition, which
initially led to an increase in output and income from agriculture, revealed its limit in the survey
period."...There are 2 versions of this paper. The one placed as the main URL, which also has a later publication date, seems to be longer, though it is about 30K smaller.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Government of Myanmar has made it clear that it recognises the crucial importance of a dynamic, liberalised agricultural sector to the country, describing it as the base’ for national economic growth and calling for the evolution of a market-oriented economic system’ as a key economic objective, while the first policy declaration of the MOAI is to allow freedom of choice in agricultural production’. Yet more than a decade after the commencement of the transition from the previous Socialist regime, many aspects of the agricultural and rural economy remain substantially under Government control or influence, including the choice of crops to be planted, priorities for agricultural research and extension, access to inputs, processing and international trade...
The enormous potentials inherent in the agricultural and rural economy of Myanmar outlined in this document will continue to go unrealised unless the liberalisation process started in the late 1980s is encouraged to fully evolve. Although moves such as the liberalisation of rice marketing in 2003 should be welcomed, their impact is often reduced by a subsequent tightening of state controls – as indeed has been the case with the reintroduction of the prohibition on private sector exports of rice just a few months later. This study has identified a number of important technical issues that need to be addressed in order to facilitate the growth of the sector1, however, it must be understood that the impact of investment in the rural sector will be greatly lessened in the absence of continued liberalisation measures...
The three policy areas which are exerting the greatest influence on sector development at this time are those relating to rural financial services, international trade and directed production. The liberalisation of rural finances is critical because state-controlled structures (e.g. MADB) are currently unable to provide farmers and other rural entrepreneurs with access to the financing they need to increase productivity. This lack of financing reduces the use of inputs, limits the adoption of new technologies, constrains the development of unutilised land and encourages low cost/low output production. Furthermore, by forcing rural populations to use much higher cost credit from informal sources it is, without doubt, a major factor in increasing rural indebtedness and poverty. Limitations on access to international markets are almost equally important, as they prevent the sector from identifying, and responding to, those opportunities which will provide the greatest returns, both for their families and for the country as a whole. The result has been to distort production patterns towards perceived national priorities, at the expense of economic growth. Finally, the continued use of directed production for perceived strategic crops limits the ability of the agricultural sector to seek out and adopt the most productive and profitable activities, effectively preventing its evolution in a rapidly changing world...
The temptation to solve economic problems through direct intervention is an age old one, and it is not surprising that the Government sees intervention as an effective instrument for achieving short-term goals, such as maintaining low consumer prices, guaranteeing supplies, or reducing expenditure of scarce foreign currency – even when this is in conflict with its own broader national policies. Nevertheless, action in one area has inevitable consequences elsewhere, many of which may not be anticipated. As many countries have discovered, one intervention often requires another intervention to resolve an unintended side-effect. Consequently, such intervention should be used very sparingly, if at all, and alternative approaches, which do not conflict with basic national policies should be sought instead...
With ASEAN integration now a likely prospect in the medium term, growing pressures from international globalisation, and strong indications of increasing poverty in rural areas, a continuation of the partial liberalization regime effectively in place at the moment will prove difficult to maintain and is likely to further constrain economic growth and development. Myanmar may ultimately have to choose between broad choices: To return to the socialist model of the 1970s and 1980s, and in so doing effectively disconnect the country from the international and regional economic system; or to push forward with existing national policies of economic liberalisation and realize the great potential of Myanmar as an agricultural producer and exporter. While the second choice will bring with it many challenges, few doubt that the agricultural sector in Myanmar can be a competitive force in the world economy, and the growth that such
competitiveness would bring could both reduce rural poverty and catalyse the development of the rest of the economy.
14.95 Finally, it is worth noting that experience across a broad spectrum of developing countries has shown that food security is most prevalent when national policies influencing the productive sectors of the economy have a marked pro-poor orientation. In a predominantly rural economy such as that of Myanmar, agricultural growth provides the most opportunities for pro-poor development, as long as the poor are central to the process. This requires not only access to appropriate technical, financial and physical resources for production, as well as associated services such as health, sanitation, water supply and education, but also an economic and policy environment which enables rural households to respond to market demand and benefit from their contribution to national growth.

Abstract:
In this paper, an extensive report on the economy of Myanmar prepared in 1998
is supplemented by more recent reports as of fall 2002 (included as appendices).
The economy of Myanmar is one of the poorest in South East Asia. Despite relatively
rapidly growth during the 1990’s, per capita income by 1998 was little higher than in the
middle 1980s. Inflation rates are high, the currency value has fallen sharply, and
Myanmar has one of the world’s lowest rates relative to income of government revenue
and non-military spending.
Agriculture in Myanmar has an unusually high share (59%) of GDP. Despite a high
reported growth rate, yields for most food crops have remained stagnant or dropped.
Poor price incentives and credit systems constrain agricultural production. As of 1998,
farm wages are barely enough to provide food, with nothing left over for clothing,
school fees, supplies, or medicine. Environmental problems including deteriorating
water supply and diminishing common property resources further impact the poor.
Industry suffers from limited credit, fluctuating power supplies, inflation and exchange
rate instability. A possible bright spot is offshore gas potential. However, much of the
expected revenue from offshore gas development may already have been pledged as
collateral for expenditure prior to 1998, and thus will go primarily to service debt.
Recent evidence summarized in a paper by Debbie Aung Din Taylor (Appendix 3)
indicates that most people in rural areas are much worse off today than a decade ago.
Decline in agricultural production is aggravated by severe degradation of the natural
resource base. River catchment areas are denuded of forest cover, leading to more
frequent and severe flooding. Fish stocks and water supplies are diminishing. These
trends are pervasive and reaching a critical level. Assistance is urgently needed to
provide the rural poor. Sustained international attention is needed to reverse the current
rapid decline of economy and environment.

"...Why does food production in Myanmar appear to be in trouble? Although quantitative
information is sparse, there is sufficient evidence to suggest three main reasons for
declining agricultural production. These three reasons are: inadequate credit, unstable
and restrictive market policies and mandatory cropping. Together, these three
conditions act as powerful disincentives to national production..."

Author/creator:

Debbie Aung Din Taylor

Language:

English

Source/publisher:

School of Advanced International Affairs, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.